“It’s the act of creating a painting that excites me,” James Ayers declares. Manipulating thick applications of oil paint—pushing, pulling, scraping and scratching with brushes, palette knives, and rollers—then adding more depth with intentional drips and splatters, and final touches of graphite and crayon, amplifies the impact of his distinctive landscapes and figures. James’ early work focused on highly representative images, primarily of indigenous people and their ways of life. Extensive travel and discoveries throughout Europe, the Americas and Africa, inspired him to incorporate his formal training in more emotive pieces. He believes less detail has the power to captivate viewers even more than finely-detailed art, allowing them to get lost in the texture and bringing them to a daydream-like frame of mind.