Artist Statement

E. M. Sutherland
10505 Brannon Cove
Austin, Texas
512-340-0410
Eddiemaxs6@aol.com

Growing up in the small southwest Texas town of Uvalde gave me a real appreciation for the life of ranching in the semi-arid southwest Texas. I loved the homes, buildings and tools that people used to make a living ranching and raising livestock. This same respect for these things also instilled a love to study and eventually paint and draw the same buildings, tools and the land itself. The graying of the cedar fence posts, old lumber on the barns, the rusting metal and wire and tin roofs and dry leather of saddles were something I often enjoyed seeing long before I knew that art would become a passion. The buildings and homes in small towns are something I like to render in my art to capture the time and culture they represent.

Public schools in Uvalde did not have art curriculum in public schools. While in junior college, I found I was interested in drawing so I entered Art School at the University of Houston for one year majoring in advertising art. But because Vietnam was active in 1966, and I joined the Navy and became a Hospital Corpsman. Although my art took a back seat to my other work I still did a lot of drawing to keep up my skills.

During the 1980’s I continued to produce pen & ink drawings of whatever got my attention, including wildlife. Then I discovered watercolor and how well it could render the subjects I found that interested me. The subjects now include anything that interests me but primarily small towns and rural central and south Texas countryside. But my “day” job became dominant and painting took a back seat to my job as an environmental specialist working for the State of Texas and private consulting firms. In 2010, I again took up my pencils, pens and brushes and got back to my passion of painting. Watercolors combined with pen & ink and other media because they allows for rich textures and colors I find. But watercolor is my favored medium to use in various ways to paint whatever subjects I like. Primarily, I still like to paint subjects of rural Texas and small towns as my own way of documenting places that are slowly disappearing.

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Portfolio: