Jay Preston Swafford
Jay Swafford is an artist designed to look at the world from the inside out. And even from this very personal perspective, Swafford further skews the subjects in his mind through a multifaceted prism. He guides the viewer into his way of seeing things that we just might be taking for granted. Things that have become so commonplace that they have become almost invisible. He invites us to revisit our environment of people, places and things with his deeply felt paintings.
Swafford's media include acrylic, oil, pastel and photography both purely and as mixed media. Whatever it takes to capture the slide show running in his mind. That includes using fragments from abstraction and figurative techniques but with a grace that could only be achieved by bending and blending them to his own vision and will.
Interviewed, Swafford pays homage to modern masters Matisse, Kandinsky, Miro, Picasso & Van Gogh as early influences, but he has moved on to looking more often, just within himself. He has built upon his artist heroes to the extent that they are no longer recognizable in his work. The ultimate compliment to these giants in the history of art.
No review of Jay Swafford's work would be complete without using, at least, all of the words: energy, drive, power and color. Verbiage that doesn't have to be pointed out to viewers by any critic. This is not a subtlety in the work but an on the surface force that drives his subjects to a rare and striking level.
Born in Nashville,Tennessee in 1954,
Swafford now resides in Springfield,Tennessee, where he is involved with the local art community & serves as Art Director for both the Robertson County Chamber Gallery
& Springfield Inn Gallery.
Paul Harmon
