West Fraser was born in Savannah, GA in 1955. He is a true "Son of The Low Country", with deep roots dating back to 1695 in Dorchester, SC, to coastal Georgia's colonial plantation history. He came of age on Hilton Head Island where he developed his love of the coastal environs that still today provides inspiration. One of the leading American artists in the representational and plein air tradition, he has built his career on richly painted, atmospheric vistas of cities, coasts, and the landscape throughout the United States and internationally - from the pristine Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, to the hill towns of Tuscany. An inveterate traveler, he has painted throughout the Caribbean, Central America, Europe and Scandinavia. Yet his passion always draws him back to the marshes and landscape of his beloved Georgia and South Carolina Coast. West Fraser has been honored with 8 solo museum exhibitions in the Midwest, the Southeast, and California. His most recent museum exhibition was at the Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA, in 2012, A Native Son: Paintings by West Fraser. His paintings have also been included in many juried museum exhibitions nationwide. The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC will host Fraser's ninth solo exhibition, opening February 9, 2017 and on view through May 14, 2017. During the past 35 years, Fraser has been published extensively, including features in Art and Antiques, Plein Air Magazine, The Robb Report, Charleston Magazine, Sandlapper Magazine, SC Wildlife Magazine, Southern Living, Southern Accents, American Artist, Nautical Quarterly, Southwest Art, US Air Ways, Fine Art Connoisseur and American Art Collector to name a few. In 2001, the University of South Carolina Press published the monograph Charleston in My Time: The Paintings of West Fraser, which was accompanied by a traveling exhibition to Southeastern museums. In 2016, The University of South Carolina Press is publishing their second book on Fraser, titled Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser. The 260-page art works in the upcoming book are representative of the sketches, studies, and finished paintings he has generated over his nearly forty-year career. The works depict coastal locales from Winyah Bay, South Carolina, to St. Augustine, Florida and include Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah and the islands of the lowcountry through the Golden Isles of Georgia. Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser includes essays by Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, and Martha R. Severens, Greenville County Museum of Art curator (1992-2010) and the authority on Southern art. For the past 11 years, Mr. Fraser has been an elected member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club, an elected Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, a Signature member of PAPA (Plein Air Painters of America) and an artist member of the California Art Club. He was Commissioner of the South Carolina Art's Commission from 2003 – 2012. He garnered his first award in 1984, The John Young Hunter Award from Allied Artists of America in NYC. Since then he has been honored with the Award of Excellence from Mystic International, The Mary S. Litt Award from The American Watercolor Society, the Pursuit of Excellence/American Master award from the Hubbard Museum of Art, NM & recently the Edgar Payne Gold Medal from the CA Art Club's 100th Gold Medal Exhibition, CA. Fraser's work hangs in permanent collections of 9 museums across the United States and Bermuda & as well, is in the permanent collection at The White House Historical Association. West Fraser lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with his wife, Helena Fox. "…West Fraser paints with light—the radiance of early morning, the glare of high noon, the glow of day's end and the mystery of moonlight—to create brilliant works of color and form. He takes what we see everyday, something that seems ordinary, and makes it worthy of fine art." –Jean Stern, Executive Director, The Irvine Museum, Irvine, CA