James Keul’s new show, A Painter’s Life, examines our connection to nature. Keul is an accomplished artist who has taught painting around the world, working in a variety of mediums to develop the deft, painterly technique seen in his work.

The exhibition includes a selection of plein air works from his native North Carolina and abroad, as well as large-scale paintings which explore the impact humans are having on the natural world. In these paintings, Keul includes figures, both adults and children, to invite us to consider how our actions will impact future generations.

Keul values art not only for its own sake, but also as a meditative practice which has guided his life. “Having had an unconventional adolescence, flying back and forth between parents and coasts, and being sent, at age 16, to a therapeutic boarding school in Western Samoa, art has been true north on my life’s compass, helping to guide me through some turbulent events and teaching me the value of patience, perseverance, and humility” he says.

Keul’s work can be found in important public and private collections around the world. As an educator committed to empowering the next generation of artists, he will be teaching a group of Savannah College of Art and Design students at their campus in Lacoste, France this summer.

This is his first show at Craven Allen Gallery.

STATEMENT

Having had an unconventional adolescence, flying back and forth between parents…and coasts, and being sent, at age 16, to a therapeutic boarding school in Western Samoa, art has been true north on my life’s compass, helping to guide me through some turbulent events and teaching me the value of patience, perseverance, and humility. Valuing the role artmaking plays in my mental health, I have approached art as a practice similar to meditation. My sense of curiosity is equally matched with my work ethic and, as such, I have created art in a wide range of mediums and subjects. Rather than editorializing my experiences, I have typically prioritized trying to represent the world as it appears to me, and in my plein air work, let the visual language of paint be the only filter through which I manipulate the scenes. An exception to this is my studio work and, in particular, my series relating to Climate Change. The painting Fish in Troubled Waters, hanging on the end wall, represents the plight of coastal-dwelling populations due to rising sea levels and is based on my experience in Samoa, where I have witnessed coastal erosion and degraded coral reefs, and have been told by Samoans how little it seems their voice can be heard at a global level. The piece was included in the 5th National Climate Assessment and Climate Literacy Guide, representing Hawaii and U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands and a reproduction is featured in Art x Climate, an exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, which opened April 22, 2025. While some of my works relating to the environment are direct, others are more subtle, as in the Moral Threads series of monotypes, having to do with consumption, environmental impact, and developing personal connections. This show threads together the strands of my life, from contemplative landscapes to socially and environmentally-engaged work, where technical and thematic narratives meet.

ABOUT JAMES KEUL

James Keul received a Bachelors of Fine Art in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design and continued my education at the Art Students League of New York, where he studied with artists Frank Mason, Mary Beth Mckenzie, Costa Vavagiakis and Cornelia Foss. His works grace collections around the world, including the Bekkjarvik Arts Society in Norway and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Tokyo, and have appeared nationally and internationally in over 100 solo and group exhibitions, most recently at the GreenHill Center for NC Art, CAM Raleigh, and the Brown Gallery at Duke University. Keul’s piece “Fish in Troubled Waters” was selected to represent the South Pacific Region in the 5th National Climate Assessment, published in October, 2023, by the US Global Change Research Project.

James Keul is also a teaching artist and considers himself to be a lifelong student. His arts education was strongly influenced by early mentors Kim and William Darling; and Frank Herbert Mason, who was a student of Frank Vincent Dumond (1865-1951).  He was trained in classical oil painting materials and techniques using Dumond’s Prismatic Palette, which is an invaluable tool for understanding value and color temperature. Keul is proud of this heritage and enjoys passing this knowledge along to a new generation of students.