Featured Artist Posey Gaines

Artist Posey Gaines intuitively uses expressive brushstrokes when painting his watercolor landscapes. More of his work can be found on his website.

 

 

I am a watercolor artist living in Glenpool, Oklahoma. Since I was a child, I have always had an interest in art. I was inspired by the magical world of art and started drawing at a young age.

 

 

You might say this artistic inspiration has touched everything I’ve ever done in my life. In the early seventies I was able to audit several art classes—wood block printing, drawing, etching and watercolor. Then life—my job and children—kept me busy. I would find time to paint but nothing steady. I retired in 2013 and took up painting watercolor full time.

 

 

My approach to watercolor is intuitive and impressionistic. I primarily paint landscapes. I have lived in thirty-seven different places, including four years in the Philippines. Having experienced such a variety of different settings gave me an appreciation for my surroundings.

 

 

Nature speaks to me with calmness and serenity. It is an expansion of my worldview that invites me to stand in silence and behold the wonder of this world we live in. It invites me to look beyond my worldview to one that embraces everything and everyone.

 

 

In my painting process I start off by simply laying down a quick and simple first wash—usually a sky and the foreground. When that is dry, I look to see what is being suggested by my first wash. I then apply my second wash to enhance what I am seeing and then finish up with my third wash to add my darks.

 

 

I don’t follow the formal rules when painting. As Picasso once said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” I don’t work out value studies and seldom do a drawing before I begin to paint. I struggle with that all the time because everyone says that is what you should do. However, my desire to be led by my intuition allows me to disregard all that and simply paint.

 

 

When I am painting a landscape, it is as if I can smell the air and sense the vastness of the landscape that is emerging. As I create, I feel as if I am standing in the middle of the landscape and can almost feel the wind blowing in my face.

 

 

I work to put these feelings into my paintings, hoping that those viewing my work will experience, sense and enjoy what I am expressing.

 

 

Watercolor is simply reality being interpreted through my eyes, my life journey, my brushes, the paints and of course, the white paper in front of me. And so, when I pick up a brush—I’m not just painting—I’m telling you a story about my life.

 

 

My hope is that upon viewing my work you hear my story and realize it has echoes of your own story. After all, as Joseph Campbell once said, “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”

 

Artist Posey Gaines invites you to follow him on Facebook, Pinterest and Reddit.

 

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