Always interested in the outdoors, hiking and canoeing, Dan enjoys plein aire painting. Twentieth Century British and American landscape painters have been influences, especially David Sawyer, Marc Hanson, Michael Alexander, Edward Seago, Stephan Datz, Laurie Kersey and Landford Monroe.  He has studied with Mary Neely, Larry Wheeler, Booth Malone, Bill Fletcher, Jay Moore, Yvonne Todd and Catherine Hurley. He is the founder of the Plein Aire Painters of the Bluegrass and a member of the Oil Painters of America and the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.