Artist Statement & Bio

Photo by Andy Evansen

Bio

Joshua Cunningham lives in St. Paul with his wife Shannon, their children, Greta and William, and a sheepdog. He has been a professional artist for 20 years. He is a member of the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota, Oil Painters of America, and a signature member of the American Impressionist Society. His work has been featured as a St. Paul Art Crawl Poster award winner, on the cover of Plein Air Magazine, and in numerous publications. Joshua’s paintings have won awards in regional, state, national, and international juried shows. He has exhibited with the Science Museum of Minnesota, The Bell Museum of Natural History, and The Minnesota Marine Art Museum. In 2024, his work was archived as part of a cultural time capsule on the moon, in the Lunar Codex, aboard the Odysseus Lander.

Joshua grew up the third of five boys on 60 acres of woods, wetlands, and pastures in Isanti, Minnesota. His path to becoming a professional artist was as winding as the country roads and nameless creeks from his hometown. It began in the abstract art departments of St. Cloud State and St. John’s University. The summer break offered a unique opportunity to apprentice with Minnesota fresco painter Mark Balma. Joshua continued his training with Mark and later at The Atelier in Minneapolis, focusing on figure and portrait drawing for two years. He spent the next five years at Hurinenko and Paquet Studio in St. Paul, studying portraiture, still life, figure drawing, and Plein air landscape painting. Landscape painting began as an afterthought, but that changed under Joe Paquet’s tutelage. For Joshua, few experiences are as challenging or enriching as painting on location. Landscapes bring him back to his rural roots.

Artist Statement 

We are here, just for a time. Barns are here, just for a time. Cities are here, just for a time. The practice of painting on location deepens this understanding. It isn’t long before I find myself defending my work against mercurial skies and the constant march of the sun. Shadows move, and colors change, leaving me to paint from memory.

Oil Painting is how I seek to understand what interests me, stirs my faith, and awakens memories. I paint what I see because representational painting offers a human expression of the world around us in a language we all share. My understanding and empathy for what can constitute a ‘subject’ continues to grow. As an artist, my primary goal is to keep getting better so that I may do better by my subjects. If I have done right by them, the paintings have a chance to stir you as the scene has stirred me.

The field studies are finished works in their own right. They hold in them the intense experience of their creation. In the studio, these paintings return me to the scene, bringing back not only what I saw but also the sounds, smells, and stories shared by the passing stranger. It is all in the paint—along with dust from the fields and grit from the road. The work reflects the visual and visceral experiences of a vibrant and spontaneous exploration of our connection to the natural world.