C. James Frazier
After 40 years as an artist, what keeps me painting everyday is the sheer joy in the process. I so immensely love what I do, that I actually forget I am working. Each painting I create is a personal odyssey. I start with a flat surface and working with combinations of red, blue, yellow and white, I arrange them to create the illusion of objects. I don’t necessarily start with a subject in mind. Instead, I like to play with colors and see what emerges for me, the whole surface has an interest as opposed to just a central object. Sometimes I start painting by looking at a photograph of a subject, other times I start with a color combination that I liked in a previous painting. Listening to classical music as I paint, the painting will combine with my emotions and take on a life of its own. Since I tend to look at everything through rose colored glasses, my paintings whether the are landscapes, still lifes or portraits, usually express happiness or tranquility. As I look at the individual paintings, I can still remember the feelings I had as I created them – the feelings that are now captured on the canvas. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, my art career began in advertising, continued when I enlisted as an illustrator with the Air Force in Vietnam, and advanced commercially under the employment of Disneyland and Disneyworld. I became bored with the constraints of commercial art and sought to express my work more creatively by opening a galley in Texas during the 1970’s. I painted and taught, moving to a larger space over the years. Eventually, I found myself being more of a businessman than an artist, so I closed my gallery and returned to full time painting, selling my work in numerous galleries throughout the country over the years.
After 40 years as an artist, what keeps me painting everyday is the sheer joy in the process. I so immensely love what I do, that I actually forget I am working. Each painting I create is a personal odyssey. I start with a flat surface and working with combinations of red, blue, yellow and white, I arrange them to create the illusion of objects. I don’t necessarily start with a subject in mind. Instead, I like to play with colors and see what emerges for me, the whole surface has an interest as opposed to just a central object. Sometimes I start painting by looking at a photograph of a subject, other times I start with a color combination that I liked in a previous painting. Listening to classical music as I paint, the painting will combine with my emotions and take on a life of its own. Since I tend to look at everything through rose colored glasses, my paintings whether the are landscapes, still lifes or portraits, usually express happiness or tranquility. As I look at the individual paintings, I can still remember the feelings I had as I created them – the feelings that are now captured on the canvas. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, my art career began in advertising, continued when I enlisted as an illustrator with the Air Force in Vietnam, and advanced commercially under the employment of Disneyland and Disneyworld. I became bored with the constraints of commercial art and sought to express my work more creatively by opening a galley in Texas during the 1970’s. I painted and taught, moving to a larger space over the years. Eventually, I found myself being more of a businessman than an artist, so I closed my gallery and returned to full time painting, selling my work in numerous galleries throughout the country over the years.