James Biggers

Artwork submitted for bid 
at our September 6, 2009 auction:

"Italy Near the Alps"
20"x30", OIL on LINEN
GALLERY PRICE : $4,200

CAPTURING THE HEART OF PAINTING

After high school, he spent a couple of years at Oklahoma City University, before transferring to Central State University in Oklahoma. It was here that he rekindled his passion for art. His coursework at the University, however, left him searching for more.

"The University really focused on abstract art. And while I enjoyed this type of painting, it wasn’t really what I wanted to do." He found what he was looking for in Father Walsh, a Catholic Priest who used his artistic abilities to create calendars and posters for the Catholic Church. It was Father Walsh who taught him the finer points of representational art, and Biggers was immediately hooked. "Father Walsh really fostered my love of painting. I doubt I’d be where I am today without his guidance and encouragement."

Once he graduated from Central State, Biggers realized his education was just beginning. There was much he still needed to learn in order to become the painter he wanted to be. He first started working on his techniques in commercial art. It was during this time that he developed his strong design skills - a characteristic that is very evident in all of his paintings. After James moved to Colorado with his wife, Mary, he continued honing his skills, while painting full-time.

By the early nineties, Biggers’ hard work was starting to pay off. He was showing in several regional and national juried exhibitions as well as invitational shows throughout the country. It was about this time that he was able to achieve another of his long-time goals. "Even before I moved to Colorado, I knew about Richard Schmid. I had always wanted to study with him, and as luck would have it, he moved into my backyard." Biggers joined a group of select artists who, along with Schmid, would get together and paint on a regular basis. They spent four years together, learning from each other, and from one of the finest contemporary painters in the country. "Richard really helped me grow, not just as a painter, but as an artist. I will always be thankful for the opportunity I had, and all that he gave to me."

While in the process of developing his technical painting skills, Biggers discovered something else essential to art, and impossible to teach. He calls it the "heart" of the painting. "At some point, you have to put something of yourself into your painting, and until you do that, you’ll never have a great painting." It’s the heart of the painting that James strives to portray. He uses the skills he has developed over the years to bring this essence to life. And while he realizes the importance of proper form, he also firmly believes that great techniques don’t always make a great painting. "Technique is what gets people to walk up to your painting, heart is what keeps them there."

Biggers also believes that the best way to capture the heart of a painting is to paint from life and to continually search for new subjects to paint. "I’m always looking for interesting subjects, I can’t paint the same thing over and over. I need new scenes and new inspirations." His desire to paint different settings from life has led him to take numerous expeditions across the globe. He has traveled extensively throughout theWestern United States, Alaska, and Europe. He has found scenes in tropical places such as, Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Mexico that appealed to him. Biggers goes where the paintings are, and the paintings are always there, wherever he goes.

It isn’t merely new scenes that James sets out to paint, but new feelings., He strives to give his paintings depth, so that the viewer can go beyond what initially drew them to the painting and discover within it the emotions it was painted with. It’s not enough for him to simply paint a breathtaking scene, or interesting subject, his goal with every painting is to portray the reason why that particular subject moved him. "I don’t know any other way to make that kind of connection with the viewer than by painting from life."

That connection with the viewer is what Biggers is always attempting to accomplish. To him the true measure of himself as an artist is not how many master-works he paints, but rather the extent to which people are moved by those paintings. "When someone comes to me and tells me that they’ve had one of my paintings for years, and they can still feel the emotions of it, then I know I’ve succeeded as an artist."

James continues to succeed as an artist while living and painting in the Poudre Canyon of Colorado. With no desire to remain stationary, he still has many quests yet to take. Because with each new painting, he grows a little, and other doors open to him. He describes it as the most frustrating, and rewarding, aspect about being an artist. "I don’t think I will ever get to where I want to be, and yet, I can never quit striving to get there."

By Christopher Cogley

December, 1999 

More about the artist

 

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