Steven Page Prewitt

Boone, NC, United States

About Steven Page Prewitt

I love art. I love making art. I love building. I look at art everyday even if I don't have time to make it. I love painting; I love drawing and mark making, print making, and construction. I love layers. I live for pentimenti. I love art history. Like Matthew in the Bible traces the genealogy of Jesus back to the beginning of man, I trace my "lineage" of art back to Manet, Monet and Cezanne. Van Gogh. Matisse. Mondrian and Kandinsky. de Stael. Motherwell, Newman and Hoffman. Rothko, Kline and Pollock. Hopper and Avery. Diebenkorn. Johns. Stella. Dunlap. Reedy. Gusterson, Simons, Burridge and Brown. I have their pictures and quotes on my studio walls. I hope I would make them proud and make art worthy of their influences. For me and my journey, it is very important to know and understand the who, what, when, why, and how these Modern Art Masters created. My personal, intimate experience of mixing colors, stretching canvases, framing prints, holding brushes, or charcoal, or graphite, or scissors is built upon my passion for the Modern Masters and my teacher/mentors. The foundation they laid for me is at the core of my language/ style/ approach to making art. Like Motherwell stated, I work in series because a good thought usually cannot be communicated in just one picture. Artists need a language. Artists build our own language- one mark, one painting at a time. Contemporary. Direct and reactive, spontaneous- yet- intentional. Overlapping and over-painting. Heavy-handed and manly describes my artistic personality. My style and application of my mediums (acrylics, oils, inks, graphite, collage, charcoal, watercolor) is more like a framing carpenter than a master furniture maker. I always build in layers of medium. Under-painting, mark-making, paint, sometimes collage, sometimes mono printing. More paint, more marks and so on.

Education:

University of Mississippi 1981-1984.
Mississippi College 1984-1985.
Ringling College of Art and Design 1985-1988.
BFA in Fine Arts, Ringling College of Art and Design, 1988.

Events:

I have been teaching beginning and intermediate level artists in summer workshops every year since 1993.

Exhibitions:

I have participated in many juried art shows/fairs around the Southeast USA including Kentuck Festival in Tuscaloosa, AL. St. Augustine Art and Craft Festival, Great Gulf Coast in Pensacola, Sarasota on St. Armands, Seaside Art Fest in FL. Charlotte, NC Street Fest. Jubilee Jam and Mistletoe Marketplace Jackson, Ms. Also countless studio tours and open houses. Gallery artist and one man show at Blowing Rock Galleries since 1998.