Featured Artist J.W. Hyatt

Artist J.W. Hyatt gives his paintings a life of their own, filling them with character and personality. To learn more about this artist, please visit his website.

 

 

You know that special feeling you get when you come across an old photograph from your past? When it happens to me, emotions are triggered, memories are suddenly refreshed, and for a moment I pause and go back to that time and place captured in that photograph.

 

 

For me, it’s not just with special photographs, but with objects, places, sounds and smells. The feelings that wash over me during these moments have the effect of elevating that particular place or object to a level of reverence usually above what is typical to the nature of the item or place.

 

 

For example, I could easily be affected by the feel of an old dirty baseball in my hand. The smell of it might remind me of the equipment bags that my father stored in our garage on the off days between little league practices.

 

 

The weight and roughness of an old ball might take me back to my twelve-year old self, goofing off with teammates and learning to throw knuckleballs and curveballs.

 

 

The texture of a lemon peel might remind me of squeezing lemons for lemonade in my backyard with my mother. For that, the baseball or lemon itself is less the object of my work than a vehicle for remembering my life as it relates to the baseball.

 

 

This has led me to look at every object with the same consideration, that each one is more than it appears to be.

 

 

In my still life collection, I like to compose and portray the objects I paint as subjects sitting for a portrait. Just as a portrait artist would attempt to show the character and personality of each subject, I approach each still life with the same challenge of capturing its unique gestalt.

 

 

My most successful works are those that are executed quickly with deliberate and dynamic strokes of color a là prima style with little to no blending. This approach allows the colors to dance on the canvas surface so the viewers’ minds can assemble them further, thus engaging them to imbue their own context onto the piece.

 

 

My two current series are “Still Lifes” and what I’m calling “Life Stills.” The latter is different from the still lifes as they aren’t portraits of things, but rather snapshots of times or places that I associate with fun and pleasure. The beach is a universally accepted as a place of rejuvenation and good times, and frequently finds its way into my “Life Stills” works.

 

 

After studying the fundamentals of art and painting for years at a university, I’ve spent the past twenty years refining my craft and developing my style and approach to making lasting artworks.

 

 

I work primarily in oil colors applied with brushes and palette knife. Of course, I hope that my work evokes an emotional response from viewers who can relate their own memories and personal life experiences to the artwork. After all, life is as unique to each of us as the collection of our own memories.

 

Artist J.W. Hyatt invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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