James Yale was a romanticist, a dreamer, a futurist, verging on the metaphysical in the depiction of limitless space in which his symbolic figures move. This is true whether the work is executed as a painting, drawing, or sculpture. His oil paintings, meticulous drawings, and clay busts seem to breathe.
As an artist working in diverse media, he was intent on achieving an inner reality that communicates visual overtones of the surreal, metaphysical nature of existentialism, where he questions life’s values and the complexities of the universe.
There is an element of nature that was central to Yale’s life and surroundings that inspire and reverberate in many of the artist’s paintings. “They are captured moments that can take you to another place – a parallel reality – It’s the idea that you can catch a fleeting glimpse of something, you turn your head and it’s gone, ” Yale said. “Was it real or not?”
“I think my work is romantic. I love nature; there is a radiance – a soul – in everything. I believe in universal consciousness that’s available to us all if we are receptive. It’s there in everybody and everything.” Yale’s paintings are imbued with subtle spiritual implications, sometimes not so subtle. “What you see is what you get,” Yale said. “That’s entirely up to you and how you relate to it. It’s what you bring to the painting that makes it your reality.”
Live models were used in most of James’ paintings. He captures the light and energy of the human form with masterful works that combine nature and all of its mysteries in a timeless fashion. It’s the dual reality of creating illusions of both the seen and unseen worlds, that stimulate our emotions and stir our dreams.
Yale was largely self- taught and ecstatic in his goals relevant to his imagination. From the standpoint of being self-taught, Yale was a gifted artist whose main complaint is there is never enough time to even complete a small fraction of the projects he would like to take on. The last 35 years of his life, he lived and still created masterpieces after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
James had been out of the public eye due to living with MS for over sixteen years. With his passing on September 18, 2023, I realized that I knew my husband, but I did not know the artist before I came into his life. I look forward to you sharing your stories and artwork of James, as we rebuild his legacy of The Lost Artist of the Ozarks.
My gratitude,
Charlotte Buchanan Yale
