CRAIG STEPHENS

INVENTORY

INTRODUCTION

Fire extinguishers, a bag of potato chips lying on its side, marinas, reservoir ponds, and Twinkies, Craig Stephens is an oil painter from Auburn, California whose subjects are as broad as he is prolific. The high school teacher-cum-artist starts and completes one painting each day. Stephens studied art at the University of California, Davis under the tutelage of Wayne Thiebaud, David Hollowell and Roy DeForest.

Stephens is part of the Painting a Day movement, where artists make one painting each day, often posting it to a blog or offering it for sale over the internet. As a contemporary art practice, the prolific nature of these painters is the only thing that binds them together as a movement. Work of these artists tends to be small and is often figurative or still life. Thematic groupings appear over time and are often a product of the artists training and geographical location or personal interest.

On August 15, 2006, Stephens decided to follow the lead of Duane Keiser and do a painting a day. Looking back on this process, Stephens writes, The process of starting and finishing a painting every day has forced me to be constantly on the prowl for subject matter. I am far more particular than I would have thought. Looking back at the last five or six hundred paintings I have seen broad themes develop and play themselves out only to be revisited at a later time. I am interested in the continuing process of daily practice over time. I try to make the paintings as honestly as I can and I want them to stand alone but I am also intrigued by the narrative possibilities when they are viewed as a group or a very large work in progress.