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Jim
Arendt has been noted for his particularly broad manner of
painting, using large and unadorned strokes of restrained color
in order to convey a strongly physical sense of meaning in each
of his paintings. Using very liquid transitions among areas of
emphasis within his compositions, Arendt displays a unique
mastery of textural illusion. Besides being able to link human
philosophy and psychology in landscape, he very often involves
personal history in his work. Arendt teaches Painting and Figure
Structure in Drawing at the University of South Carolina and is
very popular for his interesting and diverse teaching methods.
Artist's
Statement
"The bucolic nature of landscape painting typically
denies humankind’s interwoven relationship with the land. The
dramatic vista or sweeping coastlines are scrubbed clean of the
works of human hands. The inclination to see ourselves outside
the environment that we inhabit is emblematic of our quest to
control and order nature to our will.
Therefore, our pictures of nature rarely include us. . .I
have found my experiences in nature to produce nuanced emotional
responses, neither wholly pleasant nor horrifying. The riot of
plants as they strive to gain access to the sky and the
unrelenting power of rivers is both cruel and beautiful. Nature
is not a benevolent caretaker, but a dense and dangerous
experiment in endurance. Her beauty masks the struggle for
survival and blinds us to our impotence at her fury. . .
Nature is not just the background for our lives. It
envelopes us in a tangle of violent growth and moldering decay.
Through painting, I hope to better understand our
connection to and role within the landscape."
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