Our Someone 2 Know is an Emmy award-winning designer and artist. He's best known for his awe-inspiring watercolor portraits.
James Gayles moved to northern Nevada about one year ago and is now sharing his talent at local galleries and his expertise as an instructor for Sierra Arts Foundation.
At the Depot Gallery in Sparks, Gayles let us watch as his muse moved him…
There's precision in the process -
Before a watercolor portrait by James Gayles achieves its glorious completion, the artist himself pencil draws the image, and does some erasing. Then after lining some edges with pen, it's time for the colors - carried in very fickle and fluid droplets of water.
"This is one of the reasons why I like watercolors."
Gayles tells us he relishes the unpredictable nature of water, letting it help him create his portraits - each in its own time. "Two weeks to a month to a year, two years..."
James says he's been an artist for as long as he can remember.
"My parents had a thick Bible, a really thick Bible and it was illustrated by the Renaissance masters, like Michelangelo and Leonardo. So, I would take the book into my room each night and try to copy.”
Gayles was born and raised on the east coast. In his junior year at art college, he and some fellow students got together. "Painters, illustrators, some were salesman. We decided to start a company - a graphic design company.”
James went on to win an Emmy award for graphic design and illustration work he did while at a news station in New York.
Gayles later moved to Oakland, California - all the while honoring his true calling - painting portraits. He says people are his passion. "It comes from people, you know, liking people, and trying to get underneath, what lies underneath - the spirit.”
Now 74 years old, Gayles’s body of work is as big as it is impressive. One of his largest collection - filled with recognizable, cultural icons - is currently at the Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel.
"I wanted to bring African American Art to Reno.”
Gayles says he genuinely loves painting all cultures and all faces.
"It's just people, I like people.”
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Mr. Gayles is also an instructor for Sierra Arts Academy in Reno, where he leads classes in watercolor portraits.
Read more about Sierra Arts Foundation here: https://sierraarts.org/
The Sacred Feminine an Exhibition by James Gayles
February 5 - February 26
Sparks Depot Gallery
831 Victorian Ave., Sparks, NV 89431
The Souls of Black Folk an Exhibition by James Gayles
Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel -lobby
