A Beautiful Symbiotic Relationship
From an early age, art has been a self-described obsession for Cormac McCarthy. As a child, he would spend hours binge-watching painter Bob Ross on television and would experiment with different art media at the kitchen table—“drawing, painting, making, and exploring any creative experience I could get my hands on.” It was out of these childhood moments growing up in Ireland that McCarthy discovered his love of painting.
“When I paint, I lose a form of grip on space and time,” he says. “Nothing else exists except me and my paints. I layer my paints onto the canvas to create beautiful paintings, which brings my sometimes chaotic mind, stillness and tranquility. The paints and I have a beautiful symbiotic relationship.”
Through the month of December, this symbiotic relationship will be on full display at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) Lasher Gallery, where McCarthy will be showing his work to the public.
“If you've only ever seen Cormac's works online, then you already know how vibrant and evocative they are,” says Lasher Gallery Manager James Hinkley. “But believe me, when seeing them in person, they burst into lively, sensual textures and new depths that will draw you even further into the experience.”
For over a decade, McCarthy has called Whidbey Island home. He established his art gallery in Clinton—Cormac McCarthy Fine Art—which he fills with paintings that celebrate the “importance and majesty of the beautiful world around us.”
His impressionist style combines thick palette strokes of acrylic paint with subtle and dynamic variations in color, resulting in a mesmerizing blend of form and texture that draws the viewer in. Each piece is as unique as the next—whether it’s an urban jungle aglow in neon lights, a seal pup frolicking among the kelp forest, or the shores of a serene lake, bathed in the branches of a weeping willow and dotted with delicate lilypads.
“I hope my work brings peace and joy to those who take a moment to view it,” says McCarthy. “I also hope my paintings remind the viewer of the importance and majesty of the beautiful world around us. I hope my paintings stir up and remind us that we are the stewards of the world and that our natural world needs us to foster its life and growth.”
For McCarthy, it is simply celebrating “how beautiful our world is” that inspires him as a painter. It is this message that he is excited to showcase at WICA.
“I am delighted to show at WICA, and to be an active member of our arts community,” he says. “I attempt to harness creativity, flow in its currents, paint something beautiful, and share it with others.”
For those interested in seeing McCarthy’s paintings, the art will be on display through December, with a reception held on Friday, December 20th, from 5 - 6:30 PM. In addition to visiting the Langley exhibit, McCarthy’s art can be viewed at his gallery in Clinton or through his website, www.cormacpaints.art.