Artist Joshua Cunningham Connects to His Past While Painting Scott County Almanac

Savage Sunrise by Joshua Cunningham

Landscape painter, Joshua Cunningham embarked on a personal journey in 2010 after finding he has ancestral roots in Scott County, Minnesota. The idea came from a conversation at Thanksgiving about family ties to St. Benedict's Church near Jordan. With this in mind, Cunningham, from Saint Paul, ventured to Jordan to paint St Benedict's Church where his great-grandparents had been married. Inspired by what he found during his excursion, Cunningham began to paint Scott County's beautifully and colloquial landscapes.

"I really pursue how light defines a place, and the light is always different," said Cunningham. When one is looking for interesting patterns of light and shadow--everything is interesting--the world of subject matter becomes very wide."

Cunningham's show at Savage Art Studios & Gallery in Savage will feature an entirely new body of work which explores the seasons as they play out across the communities within Scott County. Then an invitation from the Savage Art Studios & Gallery to show Scott County Almanac gave Cunningham a great excuse to further explore the area and expand the scope of his original project. Cunningham said "As I drove through Scott County, which was new to my eyes, I found so much inspiration to paint. The paintings just kept presenting themselves to me, one after another. I believe the outcome is my strongest body of work ever." 

The more he did, the more the show began to broaden to include Savage, Prior Lake, Jordan, Shakopee and other area communities which stretched beyond his own family's heritage.

"It is about all of Scott County and what I found interesting, inspiring, beautiful and exciting about its contemporary landscape," said Cunningham.

The show includes more than 30 new paintings created on location and in the studio of community landmarks, farmsteads, fields, barns, lakes, urban and vistas landscapes.

The show goes through August 31.

Hop, Skip and Jump by Joshua Cunningham

Savage Art Studios & Gallery
(651) 497-7480
4735 West 123rd Street, STE 200
Savage, MN 55378
www.savageartstudios.com
www.JoshuaCunningham.com