By Taylor Jensen/entertainment editor

Award-winning artist John Walker’s exhibit, New Paintings, uses primal imagery inspired by his environment and was almost 30 years in the making.

South art instructor Joshua Goode, a former student of Walker’s, said it’s his honor to host a true master of paint at TCC and said he’ll never forget Walker’s previous visit to Texas in 2007.

“I was surprised by how much I learned about painting by just sitting and listening to him critique student paintings for two solid days,” he said. “What impressed me was that even after discussing the work of 30 students, many of whom painted in similar ways, he never repeated himself. He continuously found new ways to address the dilemmas each young artist was facing.”

Goode said this knowledge of painting is a result of a lifetime of hard work and an unmitigated understanding of the medium itself.

“Yet it is not only his knowledge and critique that will broaden our students’ understanding of painting and working as an artist,” he said. “It is being in the presence of his paintings — paintings that celebrate the physicality, sensitivity and possibility of pushing paint across a surface, paintings that challenge all those that came before them.”

Walker said his work references the beautiful landscape of his home in Maine and is simply a product of what he sees.

“I see all kinds of strange, wonderful things going on that no one else sees,” he said. “People don’t look at things.”

Walker said he wants viewers to take away the idea that one cannot go through life without appreciating and experiencing the world around them.

“Now people receive their information from technology,” he said. “Doing this, you will miss everything.”

After traveling the world perfecting his skills, Walker said he has a preference for showing his work at TCC.

“Even though I’ve showed at the most prestigious places in the world, I like showing my work to community college students,” he said. “They want it more.”

The exhibit will run until April 11 and is in the Carillon Gallery on South Campus. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. For more information, contact Goode at 817-515-4216 or joshua.goode@tccd.edu.