Biography - Rolland Luke Dingman has practiced his art all of his life, from his early childhood when his mother placed butcher paper on the kitchen floor to keep him entertained, to working his way through college as an artist for an advertising agency! He has won many awards and recognition for his impressionist style landscapes and seascapes and his Byzantine Iconography. He has painted in oils and acrylics from early childhood, selling his first oil painting at 14 years of age. For many years he has specialized in richly textured, yet highly realistic oil paintings of his favorite moments and places in God's beautiful wilderness. He strives to capture those moments of the rich warm light of dawn or late afternoon with deft, lush brushstrokes, using, and enhancing, the colors of nature. He especially enjoys the challenge of plein air painting, when he sets up his easel on site to capture the special light and drama of the moment. He also paints using his photography of his travels and hikes when plein air is not an option. Rolland Luke began studying and painting Byzantine Icons in 1984. His desire to learn and study ancient Icons led him to take pilgrimages to Russia, Greece and the Holy Land. Over the years he has painted hundreds of Icons for 21 churches, in many countries, and numerous personal commissions. He feels that one of the reasons he was born was to help adorn churches and home altars with holy Icons, which Orthodox Christians refer to as "Windows to Heaven.Ó