Bio

I feel it is very important to invite the viewer to step inside my work, if only for a moment and visualize the time, place and setting of the painting. I do this in a handful of different ways. I am definitely influenced by The Hudson River School of Painting. Frederic Church is an artist I look to for inspiration. I have always tried to create dramatic atmospheres in my work with the use of mood evoking color schemes as well as strong contrasts. When it comes to my treatment of architecture and the figures within my work I look to Edward Hopper. It is his ability to create a time and a place in all of his works that draws me in. I execute the “less is more” attitude as well. I think this really allows someone to engulf him or herself in a composition. So it is always my goal to give a sense of time and place to the viewer and the opportunity to identify with the figures in my work. I do have a bit of surrealism in my work, nothing too crazy, but I do take liberties in bending the rules to give the painting as much emotion as possible. My final touch in my work is the spontaneous writings that are included directly in the paintings. It is therapeutic for me to get pure emotion out on paper first because it is a heck of a lot faster than doing it in oil paints. I sit down and before I begin a painting and I write in my daily journal. I write whatever it is that comes into my mind about the subject. It helps me truly focus on that pure emotion that I want to express. I move on and execute the painting and at the end I include the writing in the work. The writing is not there in plain daylight; it is part of the landscape. It is there for the viewer who has a desire to know more about the work. It doesn’t spell out the meaning of work but it taps into those spontaneous thoughts that go through all of our minds during the moments of our lives. The goal of my paintings is to give a little glimpse of the moments in my life, and through universal themes connect them with the people viewing them if only for a Moment.

--James Fulton 2006