In the News


PBS South CarolinaDocumentary Film 1987
Commentator Beryl Dakers


From his studio overlooking downtown Greenville, artist Guy Stevens fills canvas after canvas with incredible images of bright color and strong design. By his own definition Stevens is a new age expressionist, but in 20 years of painting Stevens has conducted a conscientious exploration through many artistic styles and movements from fantasy realism to pointillism and various modes of expressionism. His has been an adventure in art.
  



CBS Channel 7, WSPASouth Carolina 6 o’clock news
Excerpt from the Televised interview by Carl Clark



The Greenville News
excerpt from Living the dream by Sharon Brown  March 15, 2000

   His story is not just about his art; it’s also about his struggles with his own sensitivity and making a living where eight family generations are rooted. He lives in Greenville by choice but paints all over the world.
His oils and watercolors are travelogues of his painting trips to Mexico, the Bahamas, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Greece and Hawaii. His working tours have also painted Stevens’ reputation far beyond his native Greenville.
Leaning back in his chair in his Greenville studio, Stevens himself is framed beneath a huge canvas. The oil, like most of his paintings, looks like a paint bomb explosion. In fact, explosive terms are most used to describe the artist’s vibrant creativity.
Kool-Aid-colored-mermaids swim with polka-dotted fish in the “Karl’s Island Holiday” series. Red roofs, trees, clouds and bulls splash across one canvas from the “Summer in Florence” trip, bringing to mind Grandma Moses’ primitive paintings.
“Primitive painters create from the heart generating strong emotion,” says Stevens.
  

The Royal Gazette of Hamilton, Bermuda July 27, 1988
excerpt from'Falling in love with a woman called Bermuda'

Forget the sugary pastel, dreamy brush strokes, and pretty-pretty compositions which most artists use to portray Bermuda’s beauty.
South Carolina artist Guy Stevens sees the place in a different light. Using bold colors, often applied in thick dollops of oil, and incorporating such unusual things as fish in the sky, this artist offers a refreshing approach to an old story.
And once you’re over the initial shock, the appeal of his work grows and grows – for there is much to discover in his paintings.
His style is reminiscent of dream images of Russian-born painter Marc Chagall and the primitive artists of Haiti.
“Everywhere I look is a painting. It’s like I’m falling in love with a beautiful woman called Bermuda,” he says. “Every time she turns her face I fall in love all over again! Bermuda has so many faces.”
Absolutely everything inspires him, and already his palette has woven splendid fantasies combining vibrant hibiscus, sleek cruise ships, tropical fruits, sultry maidens and whales. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8MKa44ILyo

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