Biography from American Design Ltd.:
|  JAMES CONAWAY
Contemporary Minnesota Painter
The freshness and vitality of James Conaway's colors, added to the excitement generated from his sense of movement across the landscape, gives the viewer a sensation of being propelled above all these abstract shapes as if in a shooting plane heading toward a distant horizon. Conaway will contrast the juxtaposition of large flat areas and areas of great detail with lush, painterly qualities. Although his work can give a totally spontaneous feeling, upon close inspection one can see the lines and shapes that run throughout the painting that makes all elements work together.
The light, textures, forms and colors of the vast space of the Southwestern United States continue to lure this Midwest artist. Born in Illinois and educated at Southern Illinois University and the University of Iowa, where he received his MFA in 1967, he now lives and teaches in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. "I escape to the desert several times each year," Conaway says, "because I need more visual information and inspiration to keep me going through the long Minnesota winters." While on a recent sojourn to the canyons of the Arizona and the New Mexico desert, cliffs, canyon walls, and waterfalls became the perfect model for his latest series of earth's mysteries. As a result the new work reflects the energy of the rushing rivers and falls plus a new concept of pace. He has rendered these new forms in both oil and charcoal as well in the lithograph and monotype mediums. He is presently working on a diptych of the canyons in lithograph form, published by Land Mark Editions in Minneapolis. Conaway sits on the panel of the Minnesota State Arts Board.
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