Art of Alex Ferree

Welcome to the Art of Alex Ferree!

Over a year ago, I decided that I needed to break away from what the plein air group was typically doing and seek out some places that I had not painted.

A friend from church recommended that I visit Ohio State University in Newark, OH. I drove around and found the scene depicted here. As I started to paint, it started to rain. This wasn’t the first time that I had been caught off-guard by weather.

About 10 years prior to this incident as I was first exploring the option to start my own watercolor instruction business, The Outdoor Watercolor Learning Experience, I was in Gahanna, OH at their park and dashed off a 6″*9″ painting and I was down near the water when man yelled at me that it was about to downpour. I packed up as fast I could and jumped over the rail onto the bike path and dashed under the bridge as the torrent started.

I watched the Christopher Reeve Superman movie on a VCR tape at my friends house for the first time as a child of the 1980’s. I saw that Clark Kent was a farm kid. His parents cared for him. He wore bright emblematic colors that represented his beliefs. Clark had to cover his power with a mild mannered persona to protect his friends and family. He was still just a farm kid to me.

I always paint with wonder. I create art with the same wonder as I had watched the Superman movie for the first. Not because I don’t know how to paint, but because each painting is its own adventure. I painted in Newark because I had a sense of awe at the simplicity of simple covered bridge over a ravine with Appalachia nested in the background. Bikers and hikers went back and forth as I painted.

I don’t paint to impress and I don’t create comics to impress. I am like the stone carver seeking to get the figure out of the stone. I am seeking to get a story out of the representation. I am seeking the adventure.

I love both NC Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth for different reasons. NC Wyeth was the consummate illustrator who depicted classic adventures in bold flat colors. Andrew was a premier fine art painter. You can see similarities in their work, but what defines them are their execution. Like Andrew, I depict nature scenes and like NC I love color and adventure stories. I always seek the adventure in the finished story.

Yet, in the wonder there is always a mystery. A mystery that comes from God. There is a spiritual element tucked into the natural. Can we accurately paint our dreams? Can we see God’s hand in washing dishes and folding clothes? What is the meaning of my life?

To tackle these weightier questions in my art, I go to painting scripture, worship themes, and even comics and illustration. To explore their importance to the world around me, I teach what I love and learn from my students.

I have painted, cartooned, illustrated and taught for over 20 years.

Creating art for me is a a slice of heaven on earth. Even more so the case it is enjoyable outdoors. Beautiful landscapes that have vibrant colors and unique shapes stir the storyteller inside of me. It’s not an escape but an immersion.

Here on this website you will find a connection to the storyteller in me. You will find comics, paintings, opportunities to commission me and a host of educational products and class options. I teach what I love:

When I was a child I saw Garfield comic strips as the same things as the Super Friends TV show. Eagerly I waited for the afterschool TV animated series up until my college years. TV, movies, animation, and comics had a profound influence on me as a child. But I was no homebody. As a family we spent alot of time on my grandpa’s farm. We also explored the country and tent camped up until my teen years. Almost 20 years ago I took a job as a camp counsellor (well out of my college years) just because I liked the local scenery of Hocking Hills.

Most of my life the tension has been between the city and the country. What I once experienced as a joy was the history of the outdoors and how people once lived. How have our values changed as a society because we are in a disposable culture now accelerated beyond our individual capabilities?

When I put pencil to paper I work to describe my experience. Sometimes I describe my natural surroundings and sometimes I describe the imaginary worlds in my head.  Much of it is in flat color or no color at all.

My stories are an interpretation of real world problems. They describe characters dealing with moral choices that have spiritual and natural implications. Sometimes the line between natural and supernatural aren’t so clear cut. In same way, when I am painting a biblical or worship subject the natural and supernatural are blurred.

I pick typically bright colors and leave out black a lot of times. After all it is the combination of colors that makes black. Black accentuates and pushes anything that it supports.

In 2023, I found the little tree to be a sufficient refuge to block the rain. I finished my painting and packed up my art supplies and left.

Painting outdoors is about an experience that cannot be replicated at any other time or place. I try not to take for granted important moments in my life. And if I miss the importance of a moment, then later I can reflect the significance of it.

Welcome to your new adventure! Stick with me and you will learn, grow, and be inspired toward greatness.