Emerging Artists | Tim Breaux - Southwest Art Magazine

A beautiful science

Tim Breaux, Cheops Pyramid at Sunset, oil, 29 x 40.

This story was featured in the February 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art February 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

FOR THREE DAYS each week, Tim Breaux heads to a local hospital in Ozark, MO, where he dons his scientific hat as a clinical pharmacist. It’s the perfect part-time arrangement for the painter, who devotes the rest of the week to working in his studio. There his schedule fills up quickly. From one day to the next, Breaux may be tackling his next landscape piece, setting up a still life, ordering supplies, or dashing off a casual study. And while he’s primarily a studio painter, the artist also taps into Missouri’s thriving plein-air culture. He hits the road quite a bit, too, amassing plein-air studies and reference photographs along the way. Ultimately, in one form or another, notes Breaux, “I’m immersed in painting 30 to 40 hours a week.”

: Tim Breaux, Dogwood Canyon Mill, oil, 12 x 16.

: Tim Breaux, Canyon Lake at Sunset, oil, 14 x 14.

: Tim Breaux, Having a Ball, oil, 14 x 11.

Even before the artist first picked up a paintbrush 15 years ago, he relished creative projects. He mastered the art of woodworking, for example, building everything from authentic Native American bows to a wagon for the horses on his Missouri farm. “Then, when I started painting at age 40, that all stopped,” says Breaux, who now lives in the city, free of farm chores and enjoying the extra time to paint. “I’ve always appreciated the Hudson River School artists,” he adds. “That was my first love, and I believe that’s what threw me into painting.”

His intensive studies with oil painter John Pototschnik also sent Breaux barreling ahead on his new creative endeavor. “John stressed drawing and value, which sent me down a path of trying to really understand lightness and darkness in our perception,” explains the artist. “The science part of me kicked in, and I had to go down every rabbit hole to learn about it.”

: Tim Breaux, Henry Schoolcraft at the Findley, oil, 9 x 12.

: Tim Breaux, Little Green Soldiers, oil, 8 x 10.

: Tim Breaux, Looking South From Peralta, oil, 12 x 12.

Breaux’s assiduous training shines in CHEOPS PYRAMID AT SUNSET, a radiant portrayal of the Grand Canyon that scooped up Best of Show last year at the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society’s Best of America show. In his studio, the artist uses glazing techniques that evoke the luminous aesthetic of 19th-century landscape painters like Thomas Cole and George Inness. For some of his most labor-intensive pieces, which he calls his Hudson River-style works, Breaux paints on textured wood that lends an “old-world feel”—a much-wanted result for the self-described history buff. “I always have one foot in the past,” he says. “My work is rooted in realism, but also in a timeless appearance.” —Kim Agricola

representation
Hawthorn Galleries, Springfield, MO; Cherry’s Art Gallery, Carthage, MO; Gallery Augusta, Augusta, MO; The Art Station, Eureka Springs, AR; MacCreed’s Gallery, Lebanon, MO.