MEET THE ARTIST 

Craig Gross grew up in a military related family. His grandfather served in the ARMY in WWI in France on the French front as a balloonist! Very dangerous recon.  His father was an officer in the Army Air Corp and then in the Army and Army Reserves for 30 years. He had two uncles who served - Uncle Mort Gross was a Marine and his Uncle Don Gross was in the Navy and then  the Army as well. Craig served a very sort time in the Air Force in the early 70s and has a medical discharge. Craig's father in law, LT. Frank R. Hankey, served in the U.S. Navy for 29 years. Several cousins and nieces and nephews have also served. 

Craig's brother in law, Major Mike Farmer was killed at Fort Rutger Alabama while flying a C130 that went down on the same day as CPL Frank R Gross was killed - 19 years earlier! So, losing a son in the war was one thing, but losing my brother in law on the SAME DAY  19 years apart - that is not something anyone could ever imagine even for a fiction story! 

Craig started his journey in the art world as a teen. He joined the Corning Art Guild, located on the 3rd floor of the Hawks Crystal Glass building and studied various forms of art from local celebrity artists such as: Steve Hughey, Al Valerio, David Harris of London and Dan Rupert. At that time, Craig was a devoted surrealist and a devotee of Salvador Dali. 

Over the years Craig experimented with pottery, stained glass art, oils and acrylics. But he met Olga Fincher in Palm Harbor some years back and that ignited a passion for watercolors. He threw away his oils, bought some watercolor paper and paints and set out to frustrate his self for a long time! Watercolor painting, he found out quickly, is not a forgiving medium to work with.

But, here we are today and although still learning and still coming up short, Craig continues to pursue his passion of painting beautiful landscapes, portraits and such with this fabulously challenging medium. 

In July of 2016, Craig lost his son, CPL FRANK R GROSS in the war. He was killed in Afghanistan. At that time Craig quit painting; he just did not have it in him anymore! But in December of 2018 Craig visited his son's gravesite in Arlington and it was there that he promised his son....at Gravesite 8311, Section 60, that he would start painting again. January 2019 rolled around and Craig picked up a brush once again - and he has not stopped. Since the first of January he has painted over 40 paintings and sold several to people all over the USA! 

Please check out his work. Enjoy the journey! 

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