EVAN WILSON• Born in 1953 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.• Currently lives in Hoosick, N.Y.• Attended North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, N.C.; • Maryland Institute College of Art and Schuler School of Fine Arts, both in Baltimore, Md.• His works have been displayed in galleries and museums around the world.
It’s not unusual for American painter Evan Wilson to spend as much time researching the details of a subject as he does actually painting it.
For his Alabama Baptism pieces, for example, he spent eight years studying and planning before he put brush to canvas on the first painting in the series. Real life also got in the way, but a good deal of time was spent planning how he would compose the piece.
“I really, really enjoyed the whole adventure of doing this painting,” he said. “There were lots of elements to consider: The plants that would be growing in that particular place, the state highway bridge that can be seen.
“The preacher in the water, that is exactly what he would be wearing — and he would go into the water first, maybe with a deacon.”