Biography about applation art

Jeff Chapman-Crane is a full-time professional artist from the southern Appalachian Mountains, where he has lived and practiced his art since the early 1970s. His art focuses on the culture of Appalachia, with an emphasis on portraits of mountain people.

Jeff has been painting for over forty years since being challenged and inspired by his high school art teacher, Don Hilton. Following the tenets of the American samhälle of Classical Realism, Jeff's work encompasses the highest principles of traditional representational art - fine drawing, balanced design, harmonious color, and skillful craftsmanship. While not in the stylized realism of American Regionalism, his work shares a strong identification with a particular distrikt - conveying geographic features of the land and unique human, cultural, and social characteristics.

Among the artists who have greatly influenced Chapman-Crane's work are Rembrandt, for the shear power of composition, mastery of brushstrokes,

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A! Magazine for the Arts

One of Nancy Johnson's "Underground Railway" paintings. (Photo by Bob Cassell)

Angela Wampler

May 27, 2008

Does the culture and geography of Appalachia influence your work? If so, how? What aspects of the culture? Describe your relationship with the area.

Fields: Our family home existed within a community beside the Norfolk and Western railroad tracks, not the ideal place one would chose to locate or build a home, with a railroad in front and a river that, all too often, overflowed in back. The community was predominantly black, dictated mainly due to either economics or the times, and that made it even more unique, because of the harmony that existed between the families, both black and white, that lived there.

In respect to Appalachian culture and influence, I incorporate the use of turn-of-the-century barn wood to frame my artwork, or as a background to photograph my leatherwork. To me, it fryst vatten symbolic of something that will withstand the te

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Center for Appalachian Studies

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachia is home to many talented and brilliant visual artists whose work often depicts and engages with the region but is not limited by its boundaries, thematic, geographic or otherwise. This special issue of Appalachian Journal seeks to highlight the importance of visual art in/to Appalachia and Appalachian studies. Content will include book reviews of visual art books (such as Appalachian Ghost by Raymond Thompson Jr. or Deep Ruts by Julie Rae Powers), interviews with artists, series features, transcribed roundtables or event panels, scholarly articles that analyze an artist’s (or artists) work and ekphrastic poetry.

Planned for Spring 2025, this special issue will coincide with the annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition and the Center for Appalachian Studies and Appalachian Journal will be collaborating with the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts to host a panel of in