Earl remembers at the age of five years old, drawing with his mother at the kitchen table. A talented artist herself, she encouraged him to pursue his art, advice that he avidly followed.  Studying biology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia,  he sold the occasional waterfowl painting and even carved and painted duck decoys for Outer Banks watermen when money was scarce. He developed a deep appreciation for nautical themes while scuba diving and sailing in the lower Chesapeake Bay and coastal North Carolina.

Later, he sketched and painted through a lifetime of government service, family, three children and world travel. As a traveler, outdoorsman and scuba diver, he found inspiration in wildlife, the ocean and particularly in the Virgin Islands where he and his wife frequently travel.  In March 2007, he returned from Kenya from a photo safari and completed an African Wildlife 2007 series of paintings based upon that adventure. He also attended the 2007 Villa Montorno Painting Workshop, studying under Kurt Schwartz in Seravezza, Italy. In the fall of 2008 he completed a 11 day tour of Morocco from which he has started another painting series.

Working from his studio in his home and at King Street Studios in Leesburg, Virginia, he depicts the beauty of the outdoors and the lure of tropical beaches in oil and acrylics. Owners of his nature and portrait work hail from California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Switzerland.