Arthur N. Budge, Jr.

Arthur Budge was born in Richmond, Virginia, where his father was stationed with the army. Being a native Texan, his father claimed to have taken a shoebox of dirt from Texas to place under the hospital bed so that his son would be born over Texas soil, making him a native Texan too.

Arthur lived in the oil field towns of West Texas until he was a teenager. His family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was 15. He attended Texas Tech University where he studied finance and earned Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Business Administration. Upon graduation, he moved to Dallas where he has pursued an entrepreneurial business career. He has been active in oil & gas, real estate, venture capital and private equity. Since 1998 he has been President & CEO of Five States Energy, a firm with which he has been involved since its formation in 1985.

Arthur began painting as a child. His grandfather, Mickey Lavy, who began a second career as a professional landscape artist in New Mexico in his fifties, taught him how to paint in oils at the age of 12. He continued painting through high school, but did not resume his art avocation until 2005. At that time, he began water color sketching while traveling. Ten years ago, he began painting actively, and spends 10 to 20 hours each week in his studio. He also takes several plein air painting trips each year, as well as painting when traveling in North America and Europe.

He resumed his art education in 2008, taking a group workshop with Armand Cabrera. He and Armand developed a friendship and now travel and paint together annually.

Since 1979, Arthur has lived in Dallas, Texas. He is married, has three grown children, enjoys family travels and, of course, also enjoys those opportunities to paint plein air.