Woodward Payne was born in Phoenix, AZ . He took his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and his graduate degree from Indiana University. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. After college he spent three years in Germany where he had solo exhibitions in Munich and Berlin. After returning to Arizona, he taught at the college level and became active in the sport of soaring. This greatly influenced his work and he often paints aerial landscapes. However, he is best known for lush, large botanical watercolors. He has exhibited all over the US and in Germany and is in both public and private collections in the US, Germany, Hawaii and Japan.