About the Artist

1947 - 2013

Guy passed away on April 13,  2013. His work lives on. He produced a remarkable body of work: oils, watercolors, pastels, mixed medias, intricate pottery and even wooden sculpture. He painted up to seven days before his passing. He was thrilled to be able to share his work with friends and collectors in March of 2013 at his home. He remarked: “This was my favorite art showing ever."

Guy's true education and self-discovery began after he graduated from Furman University with a degree in the visual arts in 1970. By 2013 he had painted and sold his paintings in locations around the world. During this same time frame, Guy has worked in ten studio-galleries in downtown Greenville, SC and painted for months at a time in Paris, New York, Bermuda, Munich, Montreal, and San Francisco.

"I am an intuitive, expressive colorist. I strive to give the viewer a sense of uplifting inner connection to my images."

The paintings of Guy Stevens offer us a travelogue of splendid fantasies and dreamlike narratives, and while his subject matter varies from Munich to Milano, Hawaii to Jamaica, his essential style is consistent. Employing flamboyant colors, his flat lyrical shapes suggest qualities of both primitive and impressionistic art. He often adopts an elevated viewpoint giving his work a tilt in perspective that channels an extraordinary energy and movement. He draws us into the moment with an explosion of color, which culminates in a celebration of life.


Guy painting in studio circa '75-'78
During Guy's youth, the Stevens family traveled extensively throughout the United States. These travels stimulated the creative process of the young artist. During his teenage years his grandfather recognized real potential and funded private lessons from Robert Bruns. After years of private lessons the artist enrolled at Furman University and pursued a degree in the fine arts, developing under the tutelage of Tom Flowers and Glenn Howerton.
When Guy graduated Furman in 1970, there were no professional artist in the area who relied entirely on art for their income.
As a full time painter Stevens broke new ground. He travelled over a three state area, selling to galleries and interior design shops.
During 1972 the artist exhibited at the Greenville County Museum of Art in a show entitled "Four Young Painters." Even at this early stage, the essentials of his individual process had begun to emerge. In his first major series titled Tree of Life, Stevens perfected a very refined style by layering the paint. This very polished technique was dramatically transformed by his first tour of Mexico, at which time his colors grew bright and festive. He produced 61 pastels and oils and sold every one of them.
Cover of Greenville Magazine 1985
In the Lake Keowee Series, which spanned over a three year period, he produced some 60 oils and discovered a personal connection to post expressionism. His brush stroke became distinctive and he had truely found himself as a painter.
The artist painted in Mexico, Bermuda, and New York City for extended periods during the eighties and in San Francisco in 1991. In 1997, with his 3 year old son Nathan in tow, Guy undertook a 5,000-mile painting tour of the east coast of the United States and Canada.
With each series his color harmonized and took on a deeper glow. Through the eighties and nineties his composition evolved and grew more abstract. Then in the late nineties, the artist underwent a major transformation which he describes as a rebirth. This transformation occurred in 1998 during his first European tour. The artist logged more than 10,000 miles through eight countries and completed forty paintings in forty-nine days. Since 1998 Guy has returned to paint in Europe almost every year. Other tours have taken him to Jamaica, the Hawaiian Islands twice, and several locations within the United States.
Photo by Scott Holloway
Over the last 38 years Guy has held over 100 one-man shows, and exhibited his work throughout the United States. Museum exhibits include The Greenville County Museum of Art, Pickens County Museum, Clemson University, Furman University, and in 2006 a one-man-show at the Spartanburg County Museum of Art.
In 1999, Guy’s wife, Cate joined the business and began developing a line of prints and hand painted frames as well as her own paintings.
Julien, their middle son joined the family business and designed their first web site in 1999. In the fall of 2004 after graduating from University of Hawaii, Julien began developing a new site that exhibits and sells Guy's artwork online. In 2008 the Guy Stevens Art Studio launched the third generation of the website, and simultaneously Guy published his first book entitled The Paintings of Guy Stevens with Memoirs and Poems.