About Me

Hi, I’m Steve Puttrich.

I’m a landscape painter, instructor, inventor, and lifelong student of design. For more than 40 years, I’ve worked in watercolor and oil, painting outdoors, teaching workshops, mentoring artists, and helping painters see the difference between a scene and a painting.

That difference matters.

A beautiful view does not automatically make a strong painting. Most artists know the feeling. You stand in front of a scene that moved you, but once you start painting, the design gets crowded. The values scatter. The focal point disappears. The story gets buried under too much information.

That frustration is what led me to create The Fairview Finder™.

The Fairview Finder™ began as a practical teaching tool. I wanted something artists could hold up in the field and use immediately. No batteries. No app. No complicated system. Just a clear way to frame the world, simplify the scene, organize values, and make stronger design choices before the first brushstroke.

My background helped shape that approach.

Alongside my life as an artist and instructor, I spent many years in the innovation world with Parsons Corporation, where design, problem-solving, and practical outcomes were part of the daily work. That experience taught me something I still believe:

A good tool should make the next right step easier.

That’s what The Fairview Finder™ is built to do.

It helps artists slow down, see the big shapes, compare values, find the story, and make better decisions while the painting is still full of possibility. It is not meant to replace instinct. It is meant to train it.

As a teacher, I care about more than clever ideas. I care about tools that actually help people grow. I’ve watched artists use The Fairview Finder™ to simplify a complicated landscape, rescue a weak composition, find a stronger focal point, and finally understand what it means to see like a painter.

That’s the work I love.

Over the years, I’ve also learned that artists don’t just struggle with composition. They struggle with confidence, decision-making, distraction, discouragement, and the quiet pressure of trying to make something meaningful.

That’s why I also created the Studio Reset books.

The Steady Hand, Quiet Mind was written to help artists return to calm, clarity, and trust in the middle of the creative process.

When the Studio Goes Sideways was written for those frustrating days when the painting isn’t working, the room feels loud, and you’re tempted to quit too soon.

Together with The Fairview Finder™, these books are meant to support the whole artist: the eye, the hand, the mind, and the heart.

The tool helps you frame the painting.

The books help you stay with it.

The Fairview Finder™ is part of a larger belief I carry into my painting and teaching: good art is built on design, story, and freshness.

Design gives the painting structure.

Story gives it meaning.

Freshness keeps it alive.

My hope is that The Fairview Finder™ and the Studio Reset books help you see more clearly, paint with more confidence, and enjoy the process a little more.

Thank you for being here. I’m grateful to share this work with you.

Steve Puttrich
Artist, Instructor, and Creator of The Fairview Finder™