Francois Koch

Francois Koch was born May 3, 1944, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He trained at the Johannesburg School of Art and after completing his art degree was employed as a production and layout artist at a large publishing company. He freelanced as an illustrator for several magazines and other publications and then joined a publishing house, managing the production of books. Thereafter, he had a three-year stint with the Lindsay Smithers advertising agency.

He started his fine art painting career in 1969 and had his first one-man show in 1971, after which he received his first commission from Volkskas Bank. During the 70s, Koch had several single artist shows at the Lister Art Galleries. In 1987 his work was featured at the Schweickerdt Gallery in Pretoria, and in 1988, the Sanderling Gallery in Johannesburg hosted an exhibition of his wildlife and landscape paintings. He also participated in a number of group exhibitions at the Everard Read Gallery and in the Sotheby's Wildlife Auction. His work is sold internationally, and numerous paintings have been reproduced on calendars.

In 1996, he visited the United States and Canada, traveling from Seattle to Florida painting the American landscape. He revisted the United States in 1998 and met Stuart Johnson, owner of Settlers West Gallery in Tucson, who has been representing Koch since then. Presently, the artist resides in the United States part of the year. In March 2000, Koch had a single artist exhibition at Settlers West Gallery in Tucson, in which every painting exhibited was sold.

Koch is represented by Settlers West Galleries, Inc., Tucson, AZ, and Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, TX.