Sam was born in Korinth, Denmark, graduated from the University of Western Ontario (London) and studied Fine Art at the Ontario College of Art (Toronto).

Sam's passion for travel and painting has taken him through every Canadian province, to Lougheed and Melville Island in the Canadian High Arctic, to Cuba, Bermuda, China, India, Nepal and seventeen countries in Europe. He rode his collector motorcycle across Canada and has visited most of the US, Mexico and Guatemala. Sam spent a summer working for Parks Canada in Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He has hiked all of the local mountains, the West Coast Trail, canoed the Bowren Lakes, biked the Gulf Islands, run the Vancouver Marathon, earned his Queen Scout, pilot license and a black belt in karate.

Sam's paintings have been displayed in Vancouver at various charities, the juried exhibition 'BC Artists in the Square', the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, the Bau-Xi Gallery, the Gaslite Gallery, the Sinclair Centre and countless other venues, but, mostly at his beloved outdoor studio located on the cobblestone streets of Vancouver's Historic Gastown. Sam's artwork has been featured in books, magazines and a TV commercial.

Sam maintains his home and private studio in Vancouver's South False Creek close to Granville Island.