We recently connected with Adam Turner and have shared our conversation below.
Adam, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever identified my ‘purpose’ per se, but I do believe in walking through open doors, and every door you walk through, another layer of the onion of purpose is revealed. I think when I ultimately lay on my death bed and review my life, I think my sense of purpose will be very visible. But… to give a practical answer to the question… my purpose is to keep moving forward, keep my eye out for open doors and opportunity and to never take them for granted.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Most of my adult life has been following an ‘illustration’ career. However, recently, I’ve decided to take a bit of a side step and really dive into doing original artwork for myself, and not clients. I’ve been oil painting now for a bit, and it’s definitely something I will continue to push forward with until the resistance clearly is directing me elsewhere.
Although I’ve revised and refined my techniques and subject matter, I’m still at a place where I have two, fairly different, types of work I put out: Figures and Landscapes. I also paint animals that sometimes fall into the ‘figure’ category and sometimes fall into the ‘landscape’ category. I’ve found that there are two very different audiences for these, and it helps me balance things out a bit.
The fun thing about having these two very different categories is that I generally have something to offer whichever venue invites me to be a part of what they’re doing. Some galleries really want figures, whereas various sales outlets really like the landscapes. So, I may have a set of figures in one venue and a set of landscapes in another, and both do well with the audiences they are intended for.
Regarding new and upcoming events and paintings: I will be delivering a handful of original paintings to Smith and Trade in Stillwater, MN this week as part of their inventory. I am also currently working on a series of paintings for a THC Beverage company called ‘Karouser.’ They will be displaying nine pieces of my work at an art opening in early December. I have three gallery shows currently planned for 2025 and I will mostly likely participate in five or six art fairs at this point. One other thing I’m excited about is a new series of paintings that I’ll be working on soon regarding ‘tattooed figures and the stories they tell.’ Really looking forward to that. I’ve already done a couple of photo sessions capturing my models. Should be a good one.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Getting into ‘art’ right now can be really intimidating. And I’m not sure there is any generalizations I could make that will help that journey, as each of our journeys are so subjective and context reliant. I would say that the three things that have helped in my journey are consistency, skill and relationship.
As far as ‘consistency,’ I don’t know if it’s a make-or-break sort of thing, but I’ve been ‘doing’ art one way or another my entire life. That leads to confidence, understanding of context, etc. There’s just something to be said about putting you head down, and just doing it. Stop coming up with excuses, stop delaying, and just start creating.
Regarding skill… there’s all sorts of aspects to that. I’m sure some put a lot of weight into natural talent, but I believe skill is a learned behavior mostly. I observe… a lot! I find what I like, I look at the nuances, I look at the details, I listen, etc. I the n practice, practice, practice.
Lastly, relationship is key in my development. Be kind to people. Doors will open. Be transparent. Listen. Learn. Care. Invest in others. This is how most doors have opened for me. Granted, skill can capture people’s attention at first… but so can a listening ear.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
My entire oil painting career has happened in the last 12 months… so, there’s that. However, being an illustrator for most of my life has definitely already sharpened some elements of my journey. For example, composition and color are not new to me. With that said, color has definitely taken a different path in the last 12 months.
But… the two main things that have developed over the past 12 months are: 1. My understanding and use of oil paint as a specific, targeted medium, and 2. my ‘style’.
Learning oil paint hasn’t been that difficult for me. However, I’m the sort of person who only generally learns what’s needed to get by. So, I’m sure there’s a ton about oil paints that I don’t know. I don’t really know much about the chemical aspect of different pigments (which is a big thing), and I don’t know much about medium. I generally just use colors I like, and I only use thinner (I actually use Gamsol non-toxic). But, there’s still much to learn about underpainting and glazes and such that I don’t know, but they haven’t really impacted my work yet, so I haven’t felt the need to explore. Right now, I’m just so focussed on actually painting what I know, that I haven’t dived in much to what I don’t know.
As far as my style… that’s been a lifelong journey. As an illustrator, my biggest strength was versatility. I felt like I was the guy people would call if they needed any sort of subject matter in any sort of style with any sort of medium. When right out of college, my first job was as an illustrator at a greeting card company, and one day I’d be working with gouache, the next, water color, the next, acrylic, the next, scratchboard, etc. And, the ‘style’ would be so different every day. But, now… if I want my work to sink in, there needs to be a consistency. I want there to be a consistency. So, I just started painting and waiting to see what happened. As time would tell, I was drawn to certain things, and they just started developing. Over this past year, I developed a manner of impasto painting where I love to just pile on the paint and not thin it out much at all. I also have a color palette that’s really developed, and my subject matter often conveys similar emotions across the board.
So, biggest area of growth is that I’ve overcome those obstacles for now, and have momentum.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://adamturnervisuals.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamturnervisuals
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/adamturnervisuals
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/adamturnervisuals
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