LOVELAND, Colo. (KDVR) — The Colorado outdoors offer up action, adventure and even history. For Loveland artist Howard Neville, it also offers inspiration.

It all started when Neville was just a kid in grade school.

“I was handed these boxes of colored chalk by my teachers and they told me to go up to the blackboard and create a picture for the holidays. And that’s what I did,“ said Neville.

And that is how it went. Neville did not ask any questions, he just did it.

Neville paints, sculpts and makes jewelry. So which one does he like best?

“That is like asking me which kid I like best. They are all kind of responsible for me, my behavior, and some days I feel like just doing one when I don’t feel like doing the other. I can’t pick,“ said Neville.

Neville’s father had other plans for him and his brother. They were to be carpenters.

“And it was up to me and my brother to build houses with him. And then I started doing this foo foo stuff like his brother, and he hated that,” said Neville.

Being in the outdoors was a powerful source of inspiration for the artist.

“It’s just all the beauty around you, and you don’t have to be copying anything. You just experience what you are in the middle of,“ said Neville.

Neville recently sold his studio in Grand County and moved to Loveland to be closer to his daughter, Denise. He does not create as much as he used to.

“They say artists never die, they just melt away,“ said Neville.

As long as he can hold a brush he says, as long as he can hold a brush.