About James Seward

Guest Artist

OPENING NIGHT AND RECEPTION DECEMBER 3, 2021 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Show Dates: Through December 2021
by appointment January 2021

JAMES SEWARD – WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS

When I was a little boy I used to look at pieces of material and try to envision what was hidden inside.   With a sculptor’s first and favorite tool, a pocketknife, I tried to release these things from their bonds, with varying degrees of success.  Constantly experimenting with new materials, given time and experience, I brought these things to life.  After exhausting many pocket knives and home made tools, and finally moving from Minnesota (a veritable wasteland for sculptors) I discovered many sources of help and inspiration.  I finally found a school that could teach the techniques of sculpture in Washington State where I lived and worked most of my adult life.  My medium of choice is the lost wax process for bronze sculpture.  I learned this process at the Powell Bronze Foundry in Kalispell, Montana.

Opening a bronze casting foundry in 1978 was the pivotal point from amateur enthusiasm to professional reality.  Building the foundry to 10 full time employees, I cast bronze sculptures for artists from North Carolina to Anchorage, Alaska for the next ten years.  I also cast my own sculpture.  I exhibited works in Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon and California.

I received the award of Second Place in the over-all Sculpture Category at the 1980 Belleview Art Fair.  I have also received miscellaneous other awards and ribbons at art exhibits through the years. I have chosen classic subject matter as my venue of expression and have largely concentrated on works of the female nude.

I left Washington in 1995. With sojourns back in Minnesota and in Wyoming, I moved to Billings, Montana in 2003.  I now teach sculpture for the YMCA Poets on the Prairie Program and have begun learning to paint in watercolors and oils as well as doing sculpture.  My wife, Mana and I are combining our talents in exhibiting our work together.

I always look at my work with amazement and amusement.  I am amazed at what the small boy with the pocketknife has accomplished when I look at the sculpture on the stand.  And the arts never cease to thrill and captivate me.  I thoroughly delight in teaching young people the techniques and skills that I sought so fervently as a youth.

On display through December
Welcome to Sandstone, James!

James Seward
18 Maier Ln.
Billings, Mt. 5910
(406)-252-5780
E-mail:  pintoramt@gmail.com

His work may be viewed on her website: mtsculptor1@gmail.com