James Winn

“It’s those quiet moments in the mystery of the last light that represent my latest efforts: to present that moment when nature whispers that there is more in the world than what meets the eye.” James Winn

Contemporary artist James Winn captures the spirit of the midwest in masterfully illuminated landscapes and flower paintings. Known for his rolling landscapes with distant horizons under boundless skies, Winn has narrowed his focus on nature in his most recent work. Larger-than-life surprise lilies bathed in magnificent light against dark backgrounds, lotus lilies in reflective ponds, and heavily laden branches of azalea blossoms, are now the focal point of his large scale paintings. Winn instills his paintings with the sense of “presence” he describes as something “one can only experience when alone and attentive in nature.”

Born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1949, Winn moved to Illinois in his youth where he has lived and painted ever since. He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago in the late 1960’s and later received his BS, MS, and MFA from Illinois State University where he studied with Midwestern landscape master Harold Gregor.

Since the early 1980’s Winn’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Asia. Publications highlighting Winn and his work include: 100 Artists of the Midwest (Ashley E. Rooney), The Artist and the American Landscape (John Driscol), New American Paintings (Open Studios Press), and Spirit of Place: Contemporary Landscape Painting and the American Tradition (John Arthur).

SELECTED COLLECTIONS: Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Baxter International, Chicago, IL; Borg Warner Corporation, Chicago, IL; Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Frito-Lay Corporation, Dallas, TX; Graham Gund Collection, Cambridge, MA; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI; Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO; Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL; Latham & Watkins, Chicago, IL; Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL; Northern Trust Company, Chicago, IL; Northwestern University Hospital, Chicago, IL; Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, IL; State Department, Washington DC; University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; Wellington Fund, Boston, MA.