Stunning Paintings Bring the Living Room Gallery to Life

Extract of "Quiet Autumn" (c) 2015 Davis McGinty. All Rights Reserved.
 

ENERGY AND SERENITY IN THE PAINTINGS OF DAVIS MCGINTY ON DISPLAY AT THE TUALATIN LIBRARY

News Article by Angela Wrahtz

 

A gloriously colorful mix of acrylic paintings hang at the Tualatin Library in a new art exhibition that features the inspired works of Davis McGinty. The Living Room Gallery contains a sampling of his art and the largest paintings ever to hang in the space. Sun infused landscapes and contemplative koi ponds light up the gallery along with some dazzling portraits of music legend Jimmy Hendrix. McGinty's paintings draw you in and move you. His gift for capturing the life and energy of his subjects makes this exhibition shine through the end of 2014. 

 

A life-long artist with stops and starts along the way, as with many artists, McGinty was part of the Black Culture Movement that swept art and the nation twenty years ago. McGinty was introduced on the national art scene with a large painting entitled "The Awakening" which commemorated the Million Man March on Washington D.C. and was published in thousand of prints.

More recently McGinty has followed his passion to paint subjects that are less topical in nature and more universally appealing. His passion now is too create art that excites a wider audience. His work has been represented by the Omni Gallery in the Pearl District of Portland. He paints in oils and acrylics and still find he loves to experiment with other media. What McGinty knows is "I have to paint and I have to paint what I enjoy." And he lives by a very positive, self-empowering philosophy: "I believe that everything you are seeking is out there seeking you--and you just have to be ready and open to it." For this artist, that would translate into having his art hanging on walls in homes all around America.

McGinty grew up in Arizona and was inspired to pursue art from watching his mother paint in watercolors. He was a stand-out art student in his high school and recognized at a young age by the Phoenix Art Museum which awarded him Grand Prize in an art competition and sought to purchase and display his oil painting which he ultimately refused so he could give the painting to his Mom. In college, McGinty was allowed to enter advanced level art classes based on the accomplished nature of his high school portfolio. A college professor of his declared McGinty to be "the best artist to have set foot on this campus."

McGinty is now a resident of Sherwood where he lives with his wife and daughter. In addition to his art career which continues to grow, he is something of a local celebrity for his previous success as a body builder. In 1984 he became Mr. Oregon, and he still maintains an enviable chiseled six-foot frame. He talked to me about mental science and conditioning, another interest of his for the past ten years, and he said, "If you're going to be successful, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable and take those steps that lead to something else."  Watch for McGinty and his work to be more visible in the local art community and beyond.