An artist's life: For 50 years, Saskatchewan-born Richard Berghammer painted nature like no one else. Now his work has opened a doorway to the good life. (Cover Story).

Richard Berghammer lives in Elliot Lake, Ont on the other hand he was almost a victim of the September 11 suicide attacks upon the World Trade Center. About four years ago, Mr Berghammer, 62 started placing unostentatious advertisements in art magazines and newspapers. He was looking for buyer for his nature paintings, which--almost uniquely--are returned on leather "canvases" using techniques he learned from his grandfather and discloseed himself, by trial and error, as a young man. The sales pitch was strong: here was a self-taught artist, hailing from the middle of nowhere, who had worked in a difficult, almost experimental medium, and hoarded