James Wille Faust is an important American artist on the national and local art scene. His paintings crystallize organic forms into geometrical abstraction with complexity and subtleties of color. His paintings are modern in their hard-edged geometry, but the roots of his work reside in the simple naturalism of a rural landscape painter. Faust sees the time he spent on the farms and rivers of the Midwest as a gift he shares with others through his art. Nature to him is more than just a source of inspiration. It inspires and teaches.

After many years of experimenting with Zen, achromatic colors and surrealism, Faust’s admiration for 1960s psychedelic art steered him on the path towards his current work. Since receiving a Lilly endowed “Creative Arts Fellowship” to visit the sequoia forest in Kings Canyon, California, the artist has been concentrating on a body of work inspired by trees.