JIM FALES

Artist Statement –

My first remembrances of art as a small child are of drawing cartoons in the margins of the newspaper. I sent in a coupon from the newspaper to a famous art school and a representative appeared at our door expecting to interview an adult, not a ten-year-old child!

My love of the creative process did not end as I matured and I soon found myself at the University of Cincinnati’s department of Design, Art, and Architecture. Upon graduation, I was employed in a number of art related field including work as the Art Director of Gibson Greeting Cards.

I began painting in watercolors. After a few years as a teacher of commercial art, I was able to open my own graphic design studio in Glendale, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. In this capacity, I was involved in the design of ads, testimonials, and signs.

It was in this period that I began my interest in oil painting and I have continued in this media ever since. I have discovered that oils allow me more freedom to paint outdoors in difficult terrain. Upon my wife’s retirement, we relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. I am now able to further expand on my love of nature that I nurtured so many years ago as a child by painting en plein air in Charlotte’s greenways.