June 12 - July 11, 2020

We have a great exhibition opening soon.  Views of the Heartland  features ten of the Midwest's most talented landscape artists: Rodger Bechtold, Marion Coffey, Harold Gregor, Kathy Hofmann, Keith Jacobshagen, Cathy Martin, Dennis Nechvatal, William Nichols, Todd Olson, Tom Uttech, and James Winn. 

Each artist offers a unique and personal vision of the Midwest landscape.  From photography to plein air painting, the finished piece becomes an embodiment of the artist’s interpretation of the world. 

Here is a preview of the works that Cathy Martin is making for the show.  

Each artist offers a unique and personal vision of the Midwest landscape.  From photography to plein air painting, each landscape becomes an embodiment of the artist’s interpretation of the world

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.

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

My work is photo-based, but the paintings are not about “seeing” like a camera, where the entire image is just re-presented with the same detail and cool detachment across the composition. The Photo Realist painting is as much about “modes of seeing,” with the artist’s hand as invisible as possible, as it is about the image or scene depicted.

-James Winn

For me, the photos I use are just to keep all the shapes realistic, but the light and the colors are all changed and adjusted, things are stretched out and diagonals diminished to reinforce that sense of harmony

-James Winn

To see more of James Winn’s available work, please click HERE