Jai Cochran
Landscape Paintings of Texas and the American West

ARTIST STATEMENT

        I paint places that are beautiful and mysterious but also real: landscapes where natural forces have uniquely converged, the kinds of places Native Americans hold sacred.

         For me, a painting starts when I look through the viewfinder of my camera. I use my skill as a photographer to capture forms in the light of the moment and to bring out the detail in each location. I paint from these photographs, using color to express the personality of each place, because color, like music, is vibration - it is the melody that floats above the rhythm of the forms. 

          The beauty I strive for I do not care to flatten or abstract. Rather, I choose to create compositions that pop off the canvas or drop back and draw the viewer in. Expressive three-dimensional detail is the hallmark of my art.