Artist’s Statement
More than four decades of industrial design experience using various mediums has given me a unique understanding of pastel possibilities. My paintings are influenced by travel, the places I’ve lived and worked—and by and large, my extensive design career. Much of my work reflects accurate perspective and realistic, hard-edge features, shadows and highlights, combined with abstract backgrounds, in which I pull together context, composition and a wide range of subjects. 

Specifically, I am naturally drawn to water. I find the juxtaposition between real objects, in sharp, plain view and their more abstract reflections to be an almost necessary component to my paintings. I also find this fascinating juxtaposition with shadows and sunlight.

Both Artist & Designer

In my career, I worked alongside engineers to design vehicles, boats, and trolleys (and countless other products in myriad industries) that had to be mechanically and aesthetically sound in the real world. So it is not surprising that I am drawn to these same subjects and realism in pastel painting.

Most of my design career was before the computer age, when I would develop sometimes hundreds of concept sketches for one product before presenting detailed renderings to a client. I’ve had more than 40 glorious years of this, during which pastel painting has always been my great escape. I would spend my weekdays running a company, managing employees, clients, and projects, ideating, and developing renderings with extreme precision and exactitude. Then on weekends, I'd turn on the ball game and enter my pastel studio to indulge in layers of rich color and sprees of artistic freedom.

A Growing Collection

One might notice an absence of fine art awards on my website; but I have never created art to be judged or admired by collectors. Art is something I believe I was born to do, something I need to do.

As a result, my collection has grown over the years. During the pandemic, I gave in to family pressure to make my paintings available to the public. Preparing the collection and building a website has been a collaboration between my daughter and me and has taken some time, a project requiring a great deal of self-reflection.

At long last — I give you my art; I give you my self. 

Copyright 2025 Jim MacConkey

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