James Woodside

View James Woodside's Paintings | Read James Woodside's American Artist article

Biography James Woodside

About my artwork, and landscape painting:

For me, landscape painting is a kind of direct personal "testimony" to the power and excitement of a particular place or natural form. All of the paintings and drawings displayed on this website were done from direct observation and completed on-site.

James Woodside, Magalloway River Triptych, Oil on Panel, 19" x 56"

Working outdoors forces me to have a direct and immediate relationship with the subject matter I'm painting. Working quickly, I try to simplify impossibly complex forms into simple dramatic shapes. I try to distill down what I'm looking at into something I can understand and manage. I consider this immediacy to be crucial to the success and strength of my work. The limitations of time, weather, and transportation of materials all become part of the "genetic makeup" of the painting itself and provide a set of natural parameters. For me, this helps the work maintain a fresh in-the-moment credibility, and a sense of real authenticity.

James Woodside, Driftwood and Rocks, Oil on Panel, 18" x 18"

A direct response to the "power of the place" is what interests me. By responding to what is around me, without commentary or sentimentality, I'm not attempting to "capture" nature, but rather to just bear witness, to make tangible some of the beauty and power that I have felt in these places.

James Woodside
January 12, 2007

James Woodside, Minas Basin, Oil on Panel, 24" x 24"

Personal:                     

* Born: December 3, 1957. 

* 1988-present: Director of Visual Art, Walnut Hill School, Natick, MA

Education:

1983               M.F.A., Hoffberger School of Painting

                       Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland

1980               Whitney Fellowship, Independent Study Program

                       Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

1980               B.F.A., University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware

Selected Showings:

2003-05           Art in Embassies Program, United States Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam

2002                America, The Ralls Collection, Washington, D.C.

2001                Harmony of Land: Melody of Color, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, NH

2000                Arts Around Boston Exhibit 2000, Boston, MA

2000                Creiger-Dane Gallery (at Office Environments of New England), Boston, MA 

2000                Artists Who Teach, Center for the Arts in Natick, Natick, MA

1996                The Gamble Mansion, Boston, MA 

1993                Eyes on the Earth,  Earthwatch Headquarters, Watertown, MA

1991                Art Faculty / Invitational Alumni, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

1984                History as Content, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.        

Selected Collections:

National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs

(Permanent collection at Palmer Station, Antarctica)

Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, Boston, MA

Millennia Resources, Needham, MA

University of Delaware (Permanent Collection)

Awards, Visiting Artist, Lecturing, Educational:

2006 - Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, Visiting Artist and Lecturer

2006 - Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China, Guest Instructor, Drawing Classes
2001/04 - Teacher/Researcher, "Teaching and Learning in Visual Arts Project", (funded by the J. Getty Trust), Project Zero - Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Co-Principal Investigators: Lois Hetland & Ellen Winner

2004 - Olin Fine Arts Center, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA, Visiting Artist and Lecturer

2004 - Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, Visitng Artist and Lecturer

2003 - University of Delaware, Newark, DE, Visiting Artist (graduate painting students) and Lecturer

2003 - New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH, Gallery Talk 

2003 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.,“Painting in Antarctica”, Science Seminar Series, April 29, 2003, Lecturer

2003 - Grantee, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs: Artists & Writers Program, “To Paint in Antarctica”, (deployed to Palmer Station, Antarctica)

2003 - Juror, Scholastic Art Awards, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

2002 - Lecturer/Panelist, "Connections between Effective Arts Education and Academic Research", April 15, 2002, The Julliard School, NYC

2002 – West Chester University, West Chester, PA, Gallery Talk

2001 - Juror, Biennial 2001, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH

2000 - Lecturer/Panelist, “Transfer or Transformation?” Dec. 6, 2000, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA

1993 - Instructor, Boston Visual School, summer program in Trieste, Italy

1992 – E.E. Ford Excellence in Teaching Award

 Return to James Woodside's Paintings

James Woodside, Irene's House, Oil on Panel, 14" x 14"