- Growing up in the highlands of the Northern Philippines, René "Caloy" Reyes used his parents' books and furniture for his first canvas.
His parents, both teachers, moved the family to California in 1983 for better formal education. After obtaining a degree in wildlife,
fisheries, and conservation biology at the University of California at Davis, he joined the Peace Corps to teach fish farming in rural
Gabon in Central Africa. When René returned to the U.S., he worked with the California Department of Fish and Game where he learned the
different aquatic fauna of the Central Valley. Currently, René's employed as a fisheries biologist and taxonomist, but spends a lot of his
free time playing with his daughters, doing portraits of people he meets, and watching and painting wildlife.
- René lives in Northern California with his wife Pamela and two daughters, Maya and Mandela.
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