About the Artist:
James Keul is an artist who works in a variety of media to create large-scale, imagined and sometimes observed, figure-based eco-paintings and smaller plein air nature studies. His work explores many different aspects of the way humans modify, destroy, and sometimes restore or improve the environments on which we depend. His current series of studio paintings aim to draw a cause and effect relationship between the relatively small scale of the visible human element that is depicted vis-a-vis its impact. Another recurring theme in his work is children. During the pandemic, James painted a series of his son sleeping. This series evolved into a visual exploration of children’s dreams, real and imagined, positive and nightmarish, using the innocence of youth as a context against which he (and we) envision the environmental impacts of the decisions we make today, collectively and as individuals.
James Keul - Durham, North Carolina 2022
