From the artist:

In year 2000 I began a consistent involvement painting nature.  That is the focus of this section on recent work.  I found this activity brought me peace and healing.  The diversity and invention in nature is absorbing and never-ending, and my perception of water became a constant inspiration.

The paintings are based on a dialogue between accurate description and two-dimensional composition, and the paintings at times vary slightly more toward one or the other.  Other constants are luminous color (the paintings should emit light as well as describe light), solid and intricate composition, and good drawing. These are the staples of my practice.

My dialogue with the possibilities of the art of painting through various times, places, and individual artists has been a constant involvement.  In this learning process my innate sensibility has made the choices of what is important for me to learn, and informs the variety of imagery seen in these paintings.  Some are relatively calm and serene, and some are very dynamic, conjuring a range of emotions.  My sensibility is evident throughout.

Click on an image to expand it

2022

“Painting is an integration of differences where I try to express the coordinated beauty of nature in its rhythms, relationships, and luminosity.” -James Burpee

2021

“Construction and luminosity are the means; emotional thrill is the goal.” -James Burpee

2020

“Art, like nature and an ideal society is an integration of differences.” -James Burpee

2019

"The abstraction in the work is intended to elicit an emotional response." -James Burpee

2018

"Synthesizing realism and abstraction rooted in nature" -James Burpee

2017

"Music for the eyes, mind, and heart" -James Burpee

2016

"All paintings are what I saw and experienced, with improvisation added to modify source images" - James Burpee

2015

"My overall goals are luminous, rhythmic, serene, and solid qualities which celebrate the art of painting as well as the beauty of nature." - James Burpee

2014

¨The reason I continued to paint figuratively rather than abstractly was that in figurative painting I thought I could do both simultaneously.¨ - James Weeks

2013

¨Since I love the specifics and surprising diversity of nature and the poetry of the visual language of painting, my work is both descriptive and two-dimensionally composed¨ -James Burpee

2012

"That the inner feeling of beauty be at one with nature" -Pierre Bonnard

2011

"My compulsion was to give expression to the place where beauties that should not be forgotten and beauties that have yet to be imagined collide, coexist, and transform" -unknown

2010

"For Bonnard, seeing was where time, feeling, memory, and mystery all resided." -Rika Burnham on Pierre Bonnard

2009

"My art exists at the boundary of perceived reality and pure form." -James Burpee

2008

"The work is about when something familiar becomes something new" -James Burpee

2007

In these recent work sections 95% of the paintings came from one half mile long creek on the North Shore, Minnesota.

2006

"it's not a matter of painting life.  It's a matter of giving life to painting" - Pierre Bonnard

2005

"For me art is a disciplined exhilaration." - James Burpee

2004

"I am only beginning to understand.  I should start all over again" - Pierre Bonnard

2003

"There is always color, but it has yet to become light" - Pierre Bonnard

2002

"My work has an affinity with complex and expressive instrumental music --feeling is in the poetry of form" - James Burpee

2001

"The main subject is the surface which has its color, its laws, over and above those of the objects" - Pierre Bonnard

2000

"I walk in beauty" - part of old Navajo chant

2000-2008

Appendix to recent work.  I recently found some painting images worthy of being included here.

Three postings of my work are posted on YouTube.  See them by entering "James Burpee art legacy" in the search bar.  Many of the works prior to year 2000 include drawings and works on paper.