ARTIST STATEMENT

My quest to paint great, classic American architecture doesn’t take me to New York, or Los Angeles or Chicago or Seattle. It takes me to places like Gallup and Tucumcari, New Mexico. Gila Bend, and Kingman, Arizona. Palmdale and Amboy, California. Amarillo and Del Rio, Texas. Shoot! Sometimes I even paint architecture in the real big cities like Albuquerque, Tucson or even Flagstaff!. Discover the treasures of the Mother Road: Route 66, on and off the beaten path. Roadside cafes and “greezy” spoon diners. Truck stops. Souvenir stands. Filling stations (that’s gas stations to you young-uns). And the ghost towns. Not as grandiose as the landscapes but their hold on our imaginations is just as powerful.

From the time I draw the first lines of a sketch to laying down the last brush strokes of the final painting, I use my pencils, paint brushes and palette knife to apply my lines and pigments as the building materials that render my own vision of the roadside treasures of the American Southwest and bring it all to life.

BIO

Jim Doody was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1956. Jim’s artistic journey began in kindergarten at the kitchen table, drawing landscapes, trains and dinosaurs on rolls of shelf paper. It was during a cross country train trip from Chicago to L.A. when he was six years old when Jim fell in love with the American Southwest, the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad and Route 66, The Mother Road. After he received his BA in Advertising and Illustration from Utah State University in Logan, Utah, Jim enjoyed a long, successful career in advertising as a copywriter and freelance illustrator. After his ad career, Jim took his finely honed artistic skills and began applying them to his three life long passions: The great American South West, the Santa Fe Railroad and Route 66. Each painting takes Jim back to a special place in the West. From a Grand Canyon sunrise to a cobalt blue dusk at the El Rancho Motel in Gallup New Mexico.

And all points in between.