Meet James Conlan: 1st Place Winner of the “ABSTRACT ART” Online Art Competition
Location: Houston, Texas
Meet James Conlan: 1st Place Winner of the “ABSTRACT ART” Online Art Competition
Beyond the Landscape: Entering James Conlan’s Inscapes
For James Conlan, abstraction begins not with the abandonment of the natural world, but with a deeper way of seeing it. His Inscapes series emerges from a profound personal encounter with the Pacific, where four years spent on a small atoll heightened his awareness of the delicate relationship between earth, water, and sky. With little land and seemingly endless expanses of ocean and atmosphere, Conlan began to reconsider the significance of the spaces that surround us, and the ways in which perception can transform them.
That experience became the foundation for an evolving body of work in which landscape is not depicted literally, but reimagined through color, texture, movement, and ambiguity. His paintings ask viewers to look beyond immediate recognition and consider what else might exist within an image. Rather than prescribing a narrative, Conlan leaves room for personal experience, inviting each viewer to question what they see and, perhaps, to see the familiar world differently.
This approach is particularly evident in Anthem: How the Light Gets In, the work recognized in CEV Art Gallery’s Abstract Art Juried Exhibition. Through layered acrylic and oil pastel, Conlan creates a visual environment that suggests rather than defines. The work does not demand a single interpretation; instead, it opens a space for contemplation, allowing color, texture, and form to become points of entry into an experience that is uniquely personal.
At the heart of Conlan’s practice is a generous artistic philosophy: the painting does not ultimately belong to the artist’s story. It belongs to the encounter between artwork and viewer. In this sense, his abstractions become less about representing a particular place and more about creating an opportunity to reconsider how we experience the world around us.
Tell us about the artwork that earned you this recognition. What inspired the piece, and what would you like viewers to discover or feel when they experience it?
I spent four years on a small atoll in the Pacific Ocean. With so much sky and water and so little land, I came to value the place that the land occupies in our lives. This heightened appreciation of the relationships between eath, water and sky led me to explore different ways of seeing how these elements interact. The result is an ongoing collection of paintings I call "Inscapes." I like to invite my viewers to join me in this imaginative approach to our world.
Abstract art often invites viewers to create their own interpretation. What role do emotion, intuition, or personal experience play in the way you develop your work?
Most of us have strong emotions about our experience of earth, water and sky. I invite viewers to use their personal encounters with the world to look again: are they looking at reality? Or only their current version of it? ambiguities of what they see to imagine looking at the world in new ways.
Walk us through your creative process. How does an abstract piece typically evolve from your initial idea or inspiration into the finished artwork?
I begin with a general idea of composition, then choose the dominant color I'll use in the painting. What follows is often highly intuitive. I experience the shifting of the elements as I paint. In fact, I often turn the painting over to the other side to see what has bled through. I may also turn the painting "upside down," often noticing that it more closely captures the vision I had intended. There have been times when the painting evolves away from where I started to something quite different.
Your work communicates without relying on a literal narrative. What do you hope your artwork says about you as an artist, your experiences, or the way you see the world?
I don't really think a lot about what my paintings say about me. I guess I want to avoid the viewer thinking that it's about me; I'd rather they think that it's about them.
As an online art contest, your work is being viewed on screens all over the world. How does it feel to share your art in a digital space compared to a physical gallery, and how do you think that accessibility impacts the way people connect with your message?
This online process is new to me. A painting viewed in a physical space allows the viewer to see it from afar, closer, and very close. There are certain aspects of my paintings that really need to be viewed up close, for the subtleties of texture, color and detail. I recognize the value of an online exhibition, though, in extending my reach far beyond that of a single gallery or physical exhibition.
“Anthem: How the Light Gets in,” Acrylic and oil pastel on polyester/cotton denim. 40 × 36 Inches
As an award-winning artist featured by CEV Art Gallery, what are you exploring creatively now, and what can collectors and art enthusiasts look forward to seeing from you next?
Take a look at one of my other paintings in the series you are showing on your website. It's called "Boreal." This particular work gives me strong impressions of color-field paintings. I think "Boreal" will be pushing me even further into abstraction, in which color dominates more than form.
Looking ahead, what is next for you as an artist? Are there any upcoming projects, creative goals, new directions, or ideas you are excited to explore and where can our audience follow your work and continue supporting your artistic journey?
Perhaps because of my age, I don't spend a lot of time looking ahead. I expect my ideas will develop in the moment, as I prepare the next canvas.
Anything else you want our audience to know about you?
I'm what some people call a "polymath" in the arts: I played bass professionally for many years in jazz trios and quartets. I still compose music - mostly orchestral. I was a partner in a nationally known advertising boutique called Radio Works. I've been a voice actor for 45 years; currently I mostly narrate audiobooks, which can be found in Audible under the name James Conlan.
James Conlan’s Inscapes offer no definitive destination. Instead, they remain open-ended explorations, works that shift between landscape and abstraction, recognition and uncertainty, structure and intuition. His process reflects this same openness. A composition may begin with a general idea and a dominant color, only to transform through the physical act of painting as layers, movement, and unexpected developments redirect the work. This willingness to follow the painting wherever it leads is central to Conlan’s creative practice. His work encourages viewers to pause before certainty, to consider whether what they are seeing is reality itself or simply their current interpretation of it. In that space between recognition and imagination, the paintings become active experiences rather than fixed statements.
Conlan’s artistic perspective is also informed by a remarkably multidisciplinary creative life. His experience as a professional jazz bassist, composer, advertising creative, and longtime voice actor speaks to an artist accustomed to working across sound, language, image, rhythm, and narrative. Yet within his visual practice, he deliberately steps away from making the work solely about himself. His preference is for the viewer to find their own relationship to the painting.
As Conlan continues to develop the Inscapes series, his work appears to be moving even further toward abstraction, with color increasingly taking precedence over recognizable form. Boreal, for example, points toward this next stage of exploration.
CEV Art Gallery is pleased to recognize James Conlan as the First Place recipient of the Abstract Art Juried Exhibition and to share this glimpse into the ideas, experiences, and artistic curiosity informing his work. His paintings remind us that abstraction does not necessarily take us away from the world. Sometimes, it gives us a new way to enter it.
Explore & Connect
View the Exhibition: Browse the complete ABSTRACT ART to view James Conlan artwork alongside featured global artists.
Follow the Artist: Connect with James Conlan ongoing creative journey and view her full portfolio via her official online channels.
Interested in being featured on the CEV Art Gallery blog? Email info@cevartgallery.com or keep an eye out for our next juried exhibition call for artists.
