Francis Switzer was born in 1986 in Billings, Montana, and grew up surrounded by the arts. From a young age, he was drawn into his father Scott Switzer’s studio, where he was introduced to oil painting and began developing the skills that would shape his life’s work. His early training was rooted in plein air painting, a discipline that gave him both a reverence for natural light and the ability to translate atmosphere directly onto canvas.

As a teenager, Switzer’s talent earned national recognition when he received a Congressional Award, with his paintings exhibited at the U.S. Capitol. He went on to study under acclaimed artist Robert Moore and was awarded a scholarship to attend professional painting workshops at the Scottsdale Artist’s School.

Travel was an important part of Switzer’s early life, with journeys alongside his family exposing him to diverse landscapes and cultures. While travel is less frequent today, the experiences of Montana and Alaska in his youth, and scenes from around the world, continue to inform his vision. Whether painting portraits, landscapes, or cityscapes, Switzer brings a masterful use of color and a luminous quality of light that give his work enduring appeal.

His paintings have been featured in group exhibitions of Montana plein air painters, a one-man show at Dana Gallery in Missoula, and a father-son exhibition at Artique Gallery in Anchorage. He now lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he continues to create paintings collected throughout the U.S.