Jim Waid creates abstract worlds saturated with color, layered with mark, filled with rhythm and movement, and intricately textured. His canvases barely contain the landscape painted upon them; lush with growth they invite the viewer to explore the space. The artist said of his work, “I don’t want the paintings to be like you’re looking at a landscape. I want them to feel like you’re in it.” Initially the paintings seem nonrepresentational, however, they slowly reveal themselves to be made up of organic textures, abstracted natural forms, and the desert landscape. They convey a sense of nature, without the specificity of traditional landscape painting.
He is considered one of Arizona’s most celebrated painters and is included in the public collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, NM; Palm Springs Desert Museum; Tucson Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Arizona State University Art Museum; Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington, as well as numerous other museums and corporations. Jim Waid currently lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.