A native of Utah, Ron was born in St. George. He spent his early formative years on the family’s ranch north of St. George, in the Pine Valley Mountains. Ron credits those early years as being critical to his lifelong love of nature which led him into landscape painting. He started painting in oils during his junior high years, pursuing art throughout his years of secondary education, and earning a B.A. degree in Fine Art at Southern Utah University where he graduated in 1975.