Jade Fon Woo was born in San Jose, California and was raised in Winslow, Arizona. In the art world he is known as Jade Fon. After he atteded the University of Arizona, he moved to Califlornia.

He attended the Art Students League in Los Angeles and exhibited with the California Watercolor Society. To pay his bills, he painted background scenery for the movies and was one of the artists who worked on Gone with the Wind.

In time, Jade Fon became a well known and respected California plein-air watercolor painter known as one of the adherants of the "California Style." He did scenes from cityscapes to wildlife in natural surroundings.

After WW II, he lived in San Francisco, taught at Diablo Valley College, worked as a commercial illustrator, and founded a long standing and very popular watercolor workshop at the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterey, California. He was a member of a number of watercolor societies, including the California Watercolor Society, and a member of the Society of Western Artists.

Source: McClelland, Gordon, California Watercolors 1850 - 1970, An Illustrated History & Biographical Dictionary, 2002. (For more of the "California Style," please see our page on Thelma Speed Houston and Phil Dike.)