Six Million Acre Studio
19th Century English poet, painter, and printmaker, William Blake said that "great things are done when men and mountains meet." This is a fitting description of Wadhams-based painter Kevin Raines and the magic that happens when he hikes the Adirondack Mountains to begin a new painting. I had the pleasure of interviewing Raines this past week and asking him some questions about being an artist, what inspires him about our Adirondack home, and how a hike into the woods can be just as inspiring for the next painting as the final vista.
Raines, who now splits his time between Baltimore, Maryland and Wadhams, NY, says that his love of nature began during childhood in Eastern Pennsylvania, where he loved to fish, hunt and trap. This passion led him to study forestry in college. His love of art and his creativity was simmering under the surface. He says that in grade school he "spent a great deal of time standing in the hall or the cloak room" as a result of his "creative expression". His proclivity led him to enroll in a life drawing class in college; he switched his major to painting, and eventually graduated with a BFA in Painting.
Raines then earned an MFA in Painting at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada...
