Adam Hall

REALIST-PAINTER, WEST VIRGINA

Tell us a bit about your opportunity to merge your passion for painting in your every day life?

It’s been over 2 years now that I’ve been able to paint and explore my passion full time completely detached from any sort of day job. One sort of philosophy I’ve always believed in, is to treat your day job with optimism and view it as a platform to launch you into your true passion. A Dream or passion without a solid plan can quickly become a nightmare if you just dive head first. Finally reaching this transition into where my passion now consumes at least 8 hours of my every day life is a glorious thing, but with it comes a whole new set of pressures and anxiety. Being a husband and father of 3 forces me to be extremely intentional with my time and I love that my kids get to see me pursue my passion on a daily basis.

When you first started painting, what sort of imagery were you most drawn to? What eventually lead you into the types of scenes that you create today?

The initial spark for me to create was fostered through music. A hobby of mine was to sit for hours and try to re create a melody on the piano by ear. Then once I started getting serious about painting I started painting scenes of my musician friends in a very folksy aesthetic. That was short lived however, and eventually the vast landscape became my obsession. This obsession slowly pieced together after a trip to Rwanda Africa. That adventure or experience was packed full of so much emotion and exposure to another culture that what came out creatively was my first ever landscape painting.

What kind of objects as well as materials do you like to keep in your studio space? These would be both your favourite things that you used regularly in your painting routine or different objects that spark some form of inspiration or push for you.

My walls are always filled with potential. I have to always have blank panels staring back at me in my space and almost taunting me in a way. An empty studio effects my inspiration levels for sure. Of course my studio is full of ideas taped up on the walls and potential painting titles or show titles everywhere. My kids are always in and out of the studio as well bringing life and laughter to the space. I’m not going to lie though, it can def get frustrating too. haha. Also, I have to have audible books / spotify/ and podcasts readibly accessible to me. In regards to practical objects, I recently purchased large tool chest with pull out drawers and glass on top for my palette. Each drawer is organized and packed full of paints and brushes. When my studio space is too dis functional or just a wreck it distracts me.

You also work in graphic design. Is there any cross over with your painting and your graphic design? How do you feel you are able to separate the mental structure for the two?

Anytime you are designing you are sharpening your eye and gaining experience in good layout or composition. So in that regard I have found some crossover which has helped technically. Stylistically I guess I’ve never really noticed a similarity and in fact, feel that they are completely separate worlds. My last day job was at Warner Music designing merchandise for their roster of Country/ Mainstream artists and the biggest challenge was coming home to then transition into fine art . It was so taxing on me creatively and most of the time I was not creating for myself. These days I still freelance, but have cut way back on what clients I design for, which allows for me to focus more on my true passion of painting.

How do you feel that you approach working in large scale versus when you are working on a smaller canvas?

My work has always been about atmosphere and drawing the viewer in to sort of force them to feel something. Working on larger paintings has always been my comfort zone leaving space for larger brush work and expressive mark making. The scale itself contributes immensely to what I’m trying to accomplish and so I find it translates well. When approaching smaller works it’s sometimes like trying to fit a whole chapter in a book into a 140 character tweet. Sometimes the approach is to be less vague and more dialed in or focused on the marks and colors.

What sort of themes do you find that you end up exploring inside of your paintings?

Someone wrote recently, that my paintings remind them of the uncontrolled thoughts and feelings swirling about in our minds. My work is always about the mood or feeling a scene can evoke in the viewer. Being that I’m mostly a landscape painter it can be hard to narrow in on a certain theme, but I’d say that a broad consistent theme in my work has centered around the exploration of our thoughts and emotions at different seasons of our life.

When do you feel that it is most necessary to add human elements to your paintings?

Here is a great example of when I feel like adding a figure into the work is a must for me. This past year I’ve struggled a little bit with letting anxiety creep in when dealing with fatherhood. With each new stage there is a constant loosening of the grip you could say. It’s so important to allow them to fail and gain confidence in themselves through independence. Sometimes my fears can get in the way of that healthy release and when I want to explore that in my artwork there has to be a human element involved.

What are some particularly landscapes, views, and places that you have travelled where you have felt particularly overwhelmed with the beauty or inspired to create something in the future?

Growing up in West Virginia the mountains were literally my backyard. Whenever I return to the mountains or do anything outdoors related it fuels my creativity. Before having kids a big part of my life was traveling over seas or being on a tour bus traveling all over the US. Two locations that really stand out in regards to having feelings of being overwhelmed or inspired would have to be Haiti and Africa.

What is something that you often find telling other people when they inquire about your artistry on a general level?

Each of us have a story and to me your story and where you came from is a big part of why you do what you do. So I always find myself telling a bit of my story to relate on a human level and then go into the work. It’s common that I refer to my work as trying to find beauty and honesty in the simplistic scenes that surround us. Most everyone can connect on some level to the ocean or the vast landscape and so I hope that my paintings can spark inspiration in others.

Where do you hope to see your work in the next couple of years?

Constantly evolving and surprising me. As long as I keep showing up and creating then it’s inevitable that growth happens. With every season of my career I hope to keep pressing forward and gaining new knowledge that can stay stored in my mental tool box. Hopefully 2 years from now I’m creating something new that I could not have seen coming.