Craftours Lifestyles Magazine December 2018 | Page 34

Home on t
with Artist
Jim Cl ements
W
hen Jim Clements stopped
trying to be what he wasn’t, it
freed him up to do be what he
was: an artist. me back to visual art. I failed at violin lessons,
guitar lessons; I wasn’t very good at baseball;
I can’t act or sing. But I could always draw a
little bit.”
“It was actually pretty liberating when I finally
embraced the one talent I know God gave me,
and committed to a lifetime of understanding
it better,” says Jim, who lives and works on
the prairie in the Flint Hills region of south
central Kansas. “What I’ve said often, when
complimented on my work, is that I had to
fail at a lot of other things to keep pointing Jim is an oil painter. “To me, painting
represents ultimate freedom - so it’s just
natural that the wide open spaces, rich history
and independent people of the American West
translate so well to canvas. My desire is to
honor the spirit of the West in each painting
I do.”
Working in newspaper illustration and