“James Black paints the landscape of the Southwest with sensitivity and emotion using a pallette of rich colors and style attributable to the majesty and tranquility found there. With a flair for the romantic, the artist uses light and shadow to lend drama and mastery to his compositions. Using simplicity of design, he searches for scenes that excite the senses and please the eye.”

-Harry Reed, Southwest Art

 

In Blacks own words, “to me the land possesses a quality that’s capable of reaching one’s innermost soul and refreshing it in a way that borders on the spiritual. People fortuate enough to have experienced this kind of feeling can truly appreciate the sincear efforts of the landscape artist. These are the people I attempt to reach with my work.”

A Black landscape is usually a romanticized interpretation of a place where the artist has been or envisions himself. His canvases seem to give viewers a means of escape from urban congestion and decay and place them in a setting of screen and unspoiled splendor. It is easy for a city dweller to look at one of Black’s compositions and trasport himself into a land of unprunned live oaks and colorful wildflowers, crystal clear streams, lazily drifting amidst white limestone bluffs, and towering trees and mountians reaching for invigorating tonic air.In order to find new ideas for my compositions, it is important for me to make frequent field trips in order to stimulate new ideas. There is no substitute for getting close to nature, painting on location and expericing the wonders of nature fiirst=hand to get the creative juices flowing. With a love and sincere appreciation of the outdoors, his knowledge and accute awareness of it, add a refreshing insight to his lifelike realism. My landspaces are ofter filled with a rural and rusting beauty which is quickly fading around us. I feel the pieces of yesterday are important to document, and the rich history of Texas is a theme found throught my varied worrks.