Living in a Jim Warren Painting

For my 35th anniversary as a

professional artist, I have painted a girl reading The

Art of Jim Warren book which

transforms her into a world where anything can happen, and

usually does, much like in a Jim

Warren painting. Since my very first

painting I have always set out to

create a world much like the real world, exept for one without so many rules and

restrictions. With art we can do that.

Mysteries of Life Life is such a wondrous

mystery to a child. Actually it is still quite a mystery to us adults, we

just often give up wondering!

Old man river. Often when I begin a painting, I start with

something visual that I have already such as this man I photographed in the early 80s, beard and

all. I then use my imagination as to what I

can do with this interesting picture as to

make it even more interesting, and even

sometimes meaningfull.

Mountain Falls My children, ages

8 & 11 have grown up with my

paintings expecting some

unusual, surreal or whimsical twist to

them. When I painted Mountain Falls, my daughter looked closely at it for awhile then

said "What's weird about it?" I

have always fought against

being stereotyped as a surrealist or fantasy artist ...or any kind of artist for that matter. I simply consider myself an artist

who paints what I want, when I want. For this painting I have

painted a made up place that I would just love to live next door to.

Mountain Beauty Because of the smooth realistic style that I paint in people have sometimes asked if I use airbrush. The answer is I use only paintbrush with oil paint on canvas.

Gift from an angelThey say that gifts come in all sizes, but some are

so miraculous that we often forget to appreciate what a gift it really is or

where it even comes from.

Fountain of Youth Fountain of Youth" is a

painting I often find myself bouncing around with artistically. It is a

combination of a portrait and an illustration for the label of a bottle of

vitamins...named, "Fountain of Youth."

My daily work is ecclectic. One day I find

myself painting portraits, and the next I'll be working on a movie

ad or some such project. When I have the time, I get to paint one of my

own creations that I can display at one of the 40

galleries where my work is shown.

Mother and Child

To me the bond between Mother and

Child is almost fantasy like. It

has been expressed

often in books, movies, and in

art.

If I Were a Mermaid and You Were a

Unicorn Throughout my 30 year career I have often been asked to paint a Unicorn.

At first I was hesitant because, honestly, I felt

they were too 'girlie'. Finally, when my

daughter was born I gave in and created my first Unicorn. But...if you

notice the reflections you will find I still threw in a

little twist.

The mermaid and the unicorn

I think we all no matter what age, to a

greater or lesser degree live with one foot in, and one foot

out of the fantasy world.

Ocean Dreams When painting

surrealism, many questions can be raised due to the

surealistic nature of the subject. In this painting "Ocean

Dreams" one might wonder this of the girl who has fallen

asleep after reading: Is she laying

comfortably in bed dreaming that she is at the beach ...or has she fallen asleep at

the beach and is dreaming about being in her nice soft bed covered with a blanket?

The Calling This painting is about an adult fairy tale where

romance calls in a most

magical and surprising

way.

On a Clear Day As they say, "On a clear day you can see forever" and I add to that, with a clear mind you can see

and imagine all the beauty and emotions that

you want.

Colorful World As a child I was always curious about colors. I

wondered why there was a limited number of

colors and what would new colors look like if there were more. I just couldn't picture any in

my mind. Maybe that is why I became an artist. I have since come to the

realization that all that is possible is the colors

that are in the rainbow, which is really made up

of only three basic colors; red, yellow and blue. The rest are just

mixes and variations of those.

Above the Clouds While flying above the clouds on an airplane to Hawaii, with plenty of free time, I noticed

that the clouds up there took on a strange

shape of that to me looked like wild

horses. I immediately said to myself "There's

a new painting someday" So here it

is...

Everchanging sea

Within the Pages Sometimes a good book will put you completely

in another world

Beautiful Sadness There is a feeling that seems we all

like to feel at times which I call "The Beautiful Sadness of it all". It is a sad feeling, usually associated with a love

loss, but mixed with an inner confidence and strength that lets us know that somehow everything will turn out okay. We experience this

feeling in some of the most popular movies, books, songs and in life. I think we enjoy this feeling because

life has to have some challenge, even in romance, or we simply become

bored even with the greatest of happiness. If you look close at the

reflection of the woman you will see that she is actually happy, and the storm above her head is really a

beautiful autumn tree, symbolizing the idea that everything really will turn out okay, if only you believe. This

painting was inspired by a song composed by Russian pianist Oksana, who is working on a series of songs

inspired by my art. (Oksana is also the model for this painting, fittingly

enough. The model for the storm is Katrina, an actual shot as she was

approaching New Orleans)

Love of Nature

The theme for this

painting is that Love Makes the World go around.

Eye of Mother Earth Recently I was sent a picture of a nebula in

deep space, shot by the Hubble telescope which amazingly looked like an

eye. It was called The Eye of God, obvious

enough why. I decided to do a painting of this and while doing the sketch it

occurred to me that I should do a pair of eyes,

on two separate paintings. Mother Earth was the natural choice for the other eye as I feel that she, even though only

existing symbolically, is the closest partner to God

himself.

Eye of God The model for this

painting was an actual photo of a nebula taken by the Hubble telescope in deep space. I did not alter it any way in order to make it appear more eye like. Coincidence?

You figure.

Eye of the StormLiving in Florida for the past ten years has been a constant fear that during

storm season this unstoppable,

unpredictable monster with a human name will make it's way right into

my neighborhood.So far it's decided to pass

us by.

The Road Less Traveled

Religious and spiritual beliefs are very important in this world but I think

what is even more important is that we all

have the freedom of choice in these beliefs.

Motherly Love Sometimes I think all

this world really needs is simply a little old fashioned Motherly

Love.

Rising Son Although I have a son who is now 12, he did

not model for this painting, and has not yet complained to me about

that fact.

Eagles Landing This painting was

inspired by the unique beauty of Alaska. No, I have never been there but am preparing to go

soon on a Princess Cruise art show tour. I am easily inspired by

simply looking through a few books, a little

internet research and a whole lot of imagination.

Wave in the Woods I set out to do a beautiful nature painting but could

not decide between a forest or an ocean scene. I decided what the heck, I will combine the two. I

consider this a rather "quirky" painting even for me as I am not even

sure if it is surreal or not. Are there ever

waves in the woods? Probably not but in my

world there are no rules, anything goes.

Lost Wave

Nature's finest

Being a surrealist/fant

asy artist, when I am

undecided as to whether I

should paint a forest or an ocean scene, it is totally

acceptably for me, even

expected of me to simply combine the

two

Wonderland