My Biggest Art Influence: Dad!
If you’ve seen my dad’s beautiful artwork, you can see his influence on my art without me saying it but I have to brag on him anyways! He is a representational landscape and still life painter paying special attention to capturing light and color to portray different moods throughout his work. His attention to detail is astonishing as he describes difference seasons and feelings in a time of day. I think I got my love for painting scenes of quiet simple life from him.
I’ve grown up in wonder around my dad’s work on almost every wall of the house— mountain landscapes, beach scenes, houses, old cars, small town storefronts, and still lifes. First in watercolor, and then acrylic, and finally, oils. He was a mechanical engineer for many years growing up and looking at his process, you can totally tell! I always say he studies art like an engineer—reading from the greats, drawing black and white value sketches, painting preliminary block-ins, doing a small color study and then the final piece using all sorts of homemade view finders and precise measuring techniques with office supplies along the way. That specific quality of the precise planning in multiple steps must have skipped a generation though because my process consists simply of putting some paint on the palette and haphazardly finding the scene as I go;) I owe the rest of my love for art and oil painting to him though. Growing up, he would set up different objects on the kitchen table and we would sit around and draw them as he pointed out the notable lines and shapes of what we were seeing. On each piece of art I brought him, he would enthusiastically point out specific things he liked about each of them.
As he got more into oil landscape painting, he started painting “en plein air” to study the landscape in real life and paint outside. I remember the first time I went with him out to some land in Columbia called Clemson Experimental Station out by the Sandhills mall. I think it was my senior year of high school. We painted some trees out there on a sunny day and I remember having an absolute blast and actually being a little happy at how it turned out. Since then, we try to go out and paint when I come home or when we go on our annual mountain trip to Blowing Rock, NC (the only town at this moment that has both of our work in galleries across the street from each other if you care to visit.) Painting with Dad is on a short list of my favorite things to do. Each time we go paint en plein air he teaches his process and what he’s learned—pointing out how the landscape gets bluer and grayer further away or how vertical shapes are almost always darker than objects on horizontal plains. When I paint, I hear him saying these same simple guidelines, shaping the painting and helping to bring the scene to life. His and my mom’s constant encouragement in my art has been a big factor that has nurtured my art practice and I can’t thank them enough for their belief in me and encouragement in pursuing a creative life.
Check out my Dad’s site here. And give him a follow on instagram!
You can purchase work on his site or through these lovely galleries:
Martin House Gallery, Blowing Rock, NC
Rob Shaw Gallery and Framing, West Columbia, SC
Rutledge Street Gallery, Camden, SC
PS. If you are a gallery and would like to host a Father-Daughter Show, please reach out!
