By Gussie Fauntleroy
Just out of art school, realist painter Joshua Flint tried his hand at various genres—landscape, still life, figurative, and city scenes, among them. Now he’s narrowed his scope. “I’m ever-fascinated with people and how they choose to interact with the world and each other,” Flint relates. “With all the stories and characters, there’s always something to look at and learn.” Individual portraits, faces, and people interacting are thus the focus of his work these days, with cityscapes often in his sights as well.
Flint, whose father was a city manager, grew up in cities in California, Oregon, Wyoming, and New Mexico. After graduating from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he refined his skills through painting workshops, including one at the Los Angeles studio of acclaimed Chinese-born painter Jove Wang. Wang later invited Flint and several other artists to travel with him to China, where they studied with two of that country’s most prominent painters at the China Academy of Arts in Shanghai.
Now 28 and living in Portland, OR, Flint has been experimenting with presentation and canvas shapes. “I’m always going to be learning. I never want that to stop,” he declares. “I like being able to blend my profession with this examination of myself and the world.” Flint’s paintings are on view at Lawrence Gallery, Portland, OR, and Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA.
Featured in “Artists to Watch” January 2006