John Brandon Sills works in a manner that derives its technical and stylistic inspiration from the Old Masters. Concerned with permanence and luminescence, he follows the time-tested tradional methods of grinding paints from dry pigments, hand-priming his linen, and using painting glazes to gain illumination of the painting surfaces, all practices rarely employed anymore in the modern age. He considers himself a "painterly realist" and feels that his most profound artistic influences, apart from his two major teachers, Ann Schuler and Will Wilson, are many and varied: from the cave paintings in Lascaux, France to Rembrandt, Charles Francois Daubigny, Georges Innes, John Singer Sargeant, and Claude Monet.Sills received his formal art training from the Schuler School of Fine Arts in Baltimore, MD. Having been an outstanding student, he is now himself a teacher at the Schuler School and shares his knowledge by conducting classes and workshops in plein air painting.John Sills paints nature in all its forms. His exquisitely painted landscapes, most notable for their subtlety of tone and delicate painterly beauty, exhibit a sensitivity that urges the viewer to appreciate the spiritual aspects of the land and actively participate in protection and preservation. He paints primarily on location, enjoying direct contact with nature. In still life painting, capturing the light and atmosphere is his main objective. Sills strives to do this through thoughtful observation and masterful technical ability. "All my paintings ask the same question" says John Sills. "'What is truth?' I'm making the statement that reality is the spiritual truth which underlies the physical world and that our actions with nature and each other should be based on that perception. I believe art is not a thing but an experience. It is a transcendence of vision where what we see becomes referential or metaphorical to eternal truth, and that anyone can have this experience, not just 'artists'." John Brandon Sills lives in Baltimore, MD . He has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, and has been invited to participate in museum exhibitions, most notably at the Butler Institute Annex in Eckland, OH, the Evergreen House at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the Washington County Museum in Hagerstown, MD. His work is included in numerous collections, both private and corporate, across the United States.