TREY MCCARLEY
The Artist
Dark light.
Elusive color.
You can get every ridge right and still miss the mountain.
We like to believe our eyes give us the world as it is. But what we have lived through changes what we notice—and what we cannot bear to look at. A familiar place can become unrecognizable without anything in it moving.
Trey McCarley’s approach to painting begins with that complication. Feeling is not something added to a landscape for effect. It changes the observation itself. To leave it out in the name of accuracy would be to leave part of the truth outside the frame.
The question is not simply whether the painting resembles the place. It is whether it tells the truth about being there.
In His Words
“We should not paint what we know, but rather what we see. I believe the missing link, however, is painting what we feel.”
“When we unapologetically paint what we feel, then what we see changes, and what we thought we knew is replaced with something real.”
The Journey
Trey’s early desire to paint took shape while he studied landscape architecture at the University of Arkansas. After graduating, he spent four years in a full-time apprenticeship with American Impressionist Robert Moore.
His paintings have been exhibited in the United States and internationally. In 2017, Southwest Art named him among its “21 Under 31” artists to watch.
Trey’s private studio is based in Broomfield, Colorado and is open for tours by appointment.