Stephen Michael McCombs
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Meet the Artist:
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep!
What is true in art seems to be equally true in real life, and mine has been a life of wonderful and many times painful explorations of that creative concept.
Growing up exploring beaches, mountains and deserts of the American West and Baja left me with a life-long attraction to indigenous art, desert landscapes, and the longing for outdoor adventure.
I came to painting through study and freelance work in graphic design. Painting was a natural progression, a therapy more accurately brought forth out of a difficult battle with cancer, now luckily, in the rearview mirror. Today, images that capture my interest are drawn from this life of uncertainty, of miscues and happy accidents, and of unexpected revelations. My style is Contemporary Western in the broadest sense, and I paint for the most part, in oils on wood panel.
Recently, I’ve been painting desert cactus and Baja scenery with the colors of the sunrise, and shore break waves because they’re unpredictable. And, I will always by inspired by Oaxacan villages, vaquero horseman, and the beauty of the Mexican people.
