Sears was encouraged by his grandfather, a native New Yorker, to take advantage of the many museums and galleries that NYC had to offer.  A longtime resident of Gabriola Island (now living in Cowichan Bay), Sears developed an affinity with the Japanese realists Hiroshige and Hokusai and Japanese woodblock prints. His work is concerned with the mystery and melancholy in our everyday lives and the alienation of the individual in the world of today. His paintings have been purchased by private and corporate collectors in the U.S., Canada and abroad.