Artist Statement

 Stan Bowen

Member of Oil Painters of America and American Impressionistic Society

  

In my early fifties I became serious about painting.

In my teens and early twenties I studied painting and drawing with several artists in Laguna Beach, California.  However, I didn’t pursue painting as a career.  Like many young people, I listened to others and not myself.  Later I became a furniture designer for both large and small furniture manufacturers.  I never stopped painting or drawing nor stopped studying.

In my fifties, I built a home studio.  Here I started the transition from furniture design to serious oil painting.  I started to show my work in galleries and art shows.  I always enjoyed painting and I knew I could paint but it wasn’t until my fifties that enjoyment became passion.

My passion grew as I continued to study, paint and think.  Edgar Payne, one of my favorite artists wrote in his book, Composition of Outdoor Painting, “The most important ally in the study of painting is the art of thinking.”  Studying tells you how to paint but thinking tells why.  I tell my students that they should study the very best artists that paint in the style in which they want to paint and learn how the artist did it and why.

I think of myself as a California impressionist.  I live in Cambria and I am inspired by wonderful vistas of land and sea that I see every day – a painter’s dream.  I see the world in impressionist colors and images.  My inspiration comes from Edgar Payne, William Wendt, Franz Beschoff and East Coast artists Willard Metcalf, Winslow Homer and William Merritt Chase.  Studying their works and their words led me to the style and the way I paint and think today.