Past Exhibit Highlights

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Natural Selections: Jim Waid Paintings

October 27 - December 5, 2008

This is the first Tucson exhibition in ten years for Waid whose work is regularly exhibited in galleries nationwide. Peter Briggs, Helen DeVitt Jones Curator of Art, Museum of Texas Tech University, has written the essay for this exhibition. Waid taught at Pima Community College from 1971 through 1980. The inspiration for his paintings first came after several trips to the desert with his class. He found himself transformed by the incredible range of forms; and the arroyos, hills and canyons around Tucson became a favorite subject for his large sensually colored paintings. In his artist statement Waid states, "Representing work from the last ten years, the nine paintings in this exhibit were selected to demonstrate the ongoing dialogue between the landscape, my sensibility, and the expressive possibilities of paint. The paintings are more or less abstracted; they are not illustrations, but rather enactments of the world around me. This compression of sensation leads to an acceleration of concentration, disarming the mind from its usual routine, allowing either a sharpening or opening. This gives the viewer a sense of entering the painting, not just looking at it."

Above images:
SUMMER TORCH, 2006 - acrylic on canvas, 60" x 40"
DAYBREAK, 2001 - acrylic on canvas, 84" x 132"
MONSOON, 2001 - acrylic on canvas, 72" x 84"