JR Lancaster
Artist / Photographer
JR has been an artist for over thirty years, beginning as an amateur photographer in the early Seventies and progressing into Fine Art black and white photography after attending a workshop taught by Ansel Adams in 1980. Subsequently he apprenticed with master photographer Paul Caponigro printing images for his books “The Wise Silence” and “Megaliths of Europe,” all the while working to further his own craft.
Throughout the mid-eighties JR made several trips to Central America to photograph prehistoric Mayan sites. In 1989, he was appointed by the Navajo Nation to document and photograph sacred sites & plants for educational books and projects, so moved to Chinle, Arizona from his home in Louisiana, remaining four years. He relocated to Navajo Mountain for two years to continue this project, then in 1995 to his current home in Utah where he established Cloudwatcher Studio and Gallery.
Employing time-honored mediums as well as found objects & natural materials, JR endeavors with each movement to create unique, organic pieces which convey a multi-dimensional chronicle of life – present, past & future…and the spaces beyond. His art sources from the high desert landscape; abstracts - colored of the region and the soul - frequently integrate with prehistoric images. Mixed media pieces combine paint, photography, and collage. Hand-sized sculptures, magnetic in presence, are fashioned using traditional clays of the area, and complex large-scale assemblages of wood, stone and metal (some reaching more than twenty feet in height) are custom made for clients nationwide. museums, is part of the MOMA permanent collection, and appears in a number of corporate and private collections worldwide.
Presently engrossed in the finishing stages of a book (investigating prehistoric art from a contemporary artist’s point of view) JR would nonetheless prefer to spend his day - hiking boots laced, camera in hand - captivated ceaselessly by this amazing, magical land, and the desire to bring that magic to life.
JR’s work has been exhibited nationally in over sixty galleries and museums, is part of the MOMA permanent collection, and appears in a number of corporate and private collections worldwide.
Feel free to contact JR at jrlancaster_art@yahoo.com, or dial 435.672.2307 to arrange a private showing.
