Featured Artist for September 1997

Featured GiveAway by Alan Cayton Feeling Dutch 24" x 30" - 1995 Oil on Canvas Valued at: $350

Christine LaBastille New York, NY

Meet the Artist

Meet Alan Cayton, who was born in 1947 and grew up in a small town in Greenville, North Carolina. He loved to draw and paint at an early age. He also writes poetry about nature. A bad experience at school with an abusive teacher in the third grade harbored long lasting effects as he never did well in school until his college days. A troubled childhood at home turned into rebellious teenage years where he tried everything himself not trusting or taking any person's word for it. He eventually joined the college ranks after going to night school and trying to make up for years of not paying attention. Frustration returned and he dropped out after a year knowing full well the draft was going on and he'd be drafted. He refused to use a weapon in the army and was classified after much testing as a conscientious objector. All his struggles heightened in Frankfurt, Germany where he was stationed. While there, he went awol for three days and wandered the country side sleeping in haystacks and beside the road until he realized he simply had to return.

About The Artist

Alan spent 7 years working full time in a religious organization. When he was in the army, he claims, "Jesus appeared to me and one other soldier while studying the Bible together in an apartment in Frankfurt, Germany." He said "It was the most unusual thing that ever happened to me." After he ended his army career, he spent years trying to understand why he had that experience. He says, "That's why I ended up in a religious movement working full-time until I got skeptical and went back to painting again." He also went back to school and majored in art. He later returned to New York City, married and settled down. He believes that family is the most important responsibility we have while on Earth, even more important than art. Okracoke was painted last month. It is a small work (12 x 14") on wood. What really makes Alan tick is doing something and seeing that it gives pleasure to others.

The pooch here is Scamp, his assistant. Our Supervisors have noticed his very sharp teeth ! And his wife and son are #1 in his life and he proudly writes, "My son plays violin and piano at an above average level and is in a youth orchestra." The only other artist he knows of in his family was his Aunt on his mothers side and she died when she was only twenty years old -- which was 30 years before he was born ! He was the one entrusted with her very own paint box and brushes which, though unuseable, he's kept in a devoted way ever since. Alan is definitely showing his fun personality in this photograph!

Last year he won first prize with a painting of Peaches rolling out of a paper bag at an exhibit sponsored by the Womens Club of Pocantico Hills.

Dunes, the coast of North Carolina, was painted in 1993. All his paintings are in oil. He recently decided to do portraits of people in charcoal like his Self Portrait below. He's working on two at the moment and would like to do more so feel free to contact Alan. He works from photographs, preferably taken himself, but will also work from those taken by others if they have acceptable lighting. Lighting is very important to the work he creates.

Bags on Canvas offered him a chance to study the light. It's 20" x 26" and he loves to group things in the light. It brings back many connections with city life. He often paints at the end of the day. Silence is best. Silence and the light.

Selected Exhibitions

1987 One man show at the Garrison Art Center. Garrison, NY

1989 One man show at the Garrison Art Center

1989 One man show at Kings College, Briarcliff Manor, NY

1991 One Man show at the Garrison Art Center

1992 One man showing of paintings at The Dime Savings Bank, White Plains, NY

1996 Participated in 3 juried exhibitions. Awarded 3rd prize at the Hastings-on-the-Hudson Woman's club exhibition, awarded 1st prize at the Woman's Club of Pocantico Hills exhibition and an honorable mention at the Beaux Arts Finale 1996.

1997 Future One man show at the Perlene Plotkin Gallery, in the Dobbs Ferry Library, Dobbs Ferry, NY From September 6 - October 23. Reception Saturday, September 6,7:30-9pm

In Face It I am a love child conceived on the day of hearts and roses. I was drawn into the magic on the wall when as a child I saw a portrait done in the sixteenth century whose subject's eyes seemed to see me as I saw him. I painted a rose peddle as a mounting for a tear drop on the lapel of a happily painted clown when I was sixteen. I fell in love easy and I fell in love hard. The thunder storms that passed by in summer carried with them my breezy heart. The coolness before the rain rushed over me from head to foot. I swung through majestic clouds on ropes of passion hung down from heaven until my face was washed in rain. Love conquers all was my mantra. I followed my heart until the pain made me a skeptic. At last, the tear is mine and I cry for the world that did not become the one I hoped for. The clown is one of the paintings I did while still a child. Now I have a child and I wonder how he will do in this world.

I paint best when I forget about time. Time is a
cage and painting is a key to the door of that cage. I like to paint for someone. I want to give something to others. That makes me happy. This is a painting of an Old Church in Garrison, NY that was painted during one of the many "Artist On Location" events sponsored by the Garrison Art Center. These events end in a public auction with half the money made being donated back to the art center. The paintings were created the same day as the auction on location. So, if you've had a bad day it could be very frustrating.

Artist Statement Moments pass like shadows in the grass as day turns to evening and then to night only to be reborn in the moon light. In some moments I feel like times of old are existing still as silent rivers running deep just over there out of reach. Somewhere between a nod and a wink. ~ Alan Cayton