Sobre el Artista

Joel Simpson is very much an amateur artist who lives and works in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. He has been drawing since he was a kid but only began painting, off and on, about 20 years ago. Joel sees every painting as a learning experience and is sometimes his own worst critic. Joel grew up in a military family, his father a US Army Master Aviator needless-to-say airplanes became the subject of many of his drawings and then later his paintings. When he first started out painting it was with watercolors on paper, then acrylics on paper, and now acrylics on canvas. Joel has tried working with oils but unfortunately, as he says, "I just wind up making a mess of things." Acrylics on canvas allows him to get an oil paint-like appearance and texture with relatively little mess and in a quarter of the time. Though airplanes have been the main focus of Joel's paintings, he also enjoys experimenting with landscapes, cloud and skyscapes, and even some seascapes. Joel finds that the most challenging part to all of his paintings, as he says, has been the use of and blending of light and dark. Though he looks at dozens of photographs to get some idea how light and shadows play upon an object it is still using his mind's eye in how the use of light will look in his paintings. Sometimes that works for him and sometimes it does not. As Joel puts it, "Clouds and large bodies of water present another challenge. A few white fluffy clouds are easy, it is the grandiose, awe inspiring 'heaven's gates' type clouds that are the most demanding. Trying to get the right mix of colors, textures, and use of different techniques has been the most demanding. But I am still learning. It certainly makes me look at sunrises and sunsets very differently." Joel also finds that, "Bodies of water are particular taxing due to trying to replicate waves, ripples, and the play of light and shadows upon the water. I have even watched scientific videos on how water moves, how waves form, and what they look like from 10,000 feet above to what they look like at sea level. Even looked through dozens of photographs and compared them to paintings done of seascapes." Even though, Joel took art classes in both high school and in university and has sold a few of his paintings on auction sites, He considers himself to be a true amateur. But as an amateur, he does spend quite a bit of time trying to get things right. As he says, "I conduct a fair amount of research of the earth/atmospheric sciences/features which may appear in my paintings to the historical events which my paintings may be attempting to represent. I also look through dozens of contemporary and historical paintings to compare the myriad of techniques used and the approaches taken to achieve the desired outcome." When asked about any particular artist's quote he may have come across, Joel responded by saying, "I guess the more appropriate artistic quote which best suits me, and my artistic journey comes from Leonardo da Vinci: "The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.""