Studio Visit with James Loveless Jr

Originally recorded June 15, 2022.

George Irwin of Western Gallery visits with James Loveless Jr, whose work centers on painting and who is based in Fort Worth, Texas, for a wide-ranging conversation about the artist’s work, process, and studio practice.

Transcript note: Speaker labels were assigned from the source audio where available and dialogue context otherwise. Paragraph breaks were added for readability, and verbal filler was lightly edited. Joint labels mark rapid or overlapping exchanges. This was prepared from an automated transcription, so minor transcription errors may remain.

Instagram Live studio visit—June 15, 2022

Watch the original video on Instagram (37:35)

Participants: George Irwin and James Loveless Jr

George Irwin: Good morning, Internet and World and Instagramers worldwide. George Irwin here with Western Gallery. This morning we are going to be doing another studio visit virtual right here through this magical window device into the homes and studios of artists across the world. And today we're going to be visiting James Loveless Jr. in Fort Worth, Texas which is actually not terribly far away from where I am right at this moment but you might be in Wyoming so I hope that you enjoy this magical portal. Um, I'm gonna get James on here he is a very accomplished artist who has painting historical scenes of the Old West, and if you have not seen his work please check it out at western.gallery in the New Western Talent Show. I said talent show again. New Western Talent exhibition. Though I think James would probably do pretty well on the talent show actually. Let's

George Irwin: see if we can get him on here. Beep bop boop boo boop. Internets. Alright. So, So, James Theory. Okay here we go. It looks like we're in a studio. Hey James!

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Hey how's it going? All right how are you? I'm doing well today glad to be here.

George Irwin: Excellent same here always glad to be uh doing well and talking about art. Awesome yeah um so you're out here in Fort Worth.

James Loveless Jr: Right, right. I understand that you're here also. Yeah we've been here for the past 13 years. My wife and I originally came to Fort Worth to plant a church and now we're with the Potter's House. TD Jakes is my bishop. Patrick Winfield is my pastor. Very cool excellent. Well um

George Irwin: Um, cool. And then so are you still working then at the church?

James Loveless Jr: No, no, we're currently with the Potter's House of Fort Worth where Patrick Winfield is the pastor and like I said, TD Jakes is my bishop. So we do things that there's a central place in Dallas from time to time. We have different events that go on there. And so we're able to do that with them when they, when they have such events. But with COVID, it's kind of slowed everything down. So we've been doing a lot of things just like this.

George Irwin: Yeah, buddy. Yeah, I saw on your website that you guys did a live art show or on YouTube. Was that last summer?

James Loveless Jr: Right, we were doing that at first and stuff. And so I didn't know whether that was connecting those two audiences together. We before COVID hit, we had a cover band and so we travel all over

George Irwin: Texas doing weddings and stuff like that. And we also sang in nursing homes. So when COVID

James Loveless Jr: hit it kind of put a wrench into all of that. So we decided to go with what we were doing before with the art. We had a gallery in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri and so that's what we were doing before we came here but after that was over and we did that for three years then we did a gospel tour my wife sings she's open for gladdest night and set you at the entertainer so we did it for about three years and then we came to Texas and here we are now doing historical Western art.

George Irwin: That's amazing. Full circle. Yeah, really. So when you guys were doing the gallery in St. Louis, was that Western art as well or was that a different kind of genre?

James Loveless Jr: No, what we're doing there is basically African-American art because in St Louis, the demographics were a lot different. And so we did that, we did custom framing. We did commissioned portraits and that's how I got my kids through school. They all, you know, that's not paid for them to get through college and stuff by having them work at the gallery. I have five kids and three of them drawing paint. And so I had them framing and my oldest son does portraits. And so he works with airbrush and so we were doing all of that. So it was just a lot of work to try to keep a store like that open. It was a beautiful store that we had, but that's Times Fast and Water Under the Bridge and now we're on to Western Art here in Fort Worth, Texas.

George Irwin: Amazing! So I'm guessing then you've been sort of inspired by being in Cowtown and all the Western...

James Loveless Jr: Western. Right, right all the things that go on here being here in the West as it was my grandfather and we used to go to my grandfather grandmother's house Every summer and so he was a cowboy He went to rodeos He did you know steer wrestling and roping and all that stuff and in the living room There at their house. It was all of these ribbons that were on the wall from all the things he had been to. So, and my grandmother was a native of American and so with that's how I became interested in all of this through his influence and you know I got it honest.

George Irwin: I got announced. Yeah, that's awesome. That's really cool and then so then your statement is says that you know I'm guessing inspired especially by your grandparents like looking at relationships of kind of like less represented demographics within the cowboy in West Virginia

James Loveless Jr: genre of art. Right, right so I got into the historical part because of discrepancies that I've seen in museums and where it's the representation of cowboys as you know 25% of them were African American or former slaves and And then another 32% were Mexican American. Vucaros and stuff, so I'm planning to do that. In fact, I'm working on a photo shoot right now with a fella by the name of Bass Reeves. Now Bass Reeves is known as the original Long Ranger. He captured over 4,000 fugitives trying to escape justice. justice, he could not read or write. So he would take the writ given to him by Judge Isaac Parker memorize it and then go searching for the fugitives. He also spoke four Native American languages and he was taught in a gang relationship with a Creek chieftain. And that's how we got the relationship. So the fugitive had nowhere to run they couldn't

James Loveless Jr: be around the settled parts of the country and they couldn't run to Indian territory in order to escape the reach of Bass Reeves. And so because of his connections, because of his language things, they weren't able to escape them. So that's I'm doing a photo shoot next month with a guy who's gonna betray Bass Reeves and he's been a yellowstone, he's done a lot of movies and things like that. And so he's agreed to do this and so I got to call him on today let him know that everything is a go with

George Irwin: what we planned. So we're going to have horses, we're

James Loveless Jr: going to had him and other cowboys there in order to do the photo shoot and hopefully I come up with some good information, good reference material that I can use for the paintings that I'm planning to produce.

George Irwin: Yeah really that's sounds awesome. Are you doing the photo shoot here in the

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Fort Worth area or outside? He actually lives in Tyler, Texas

James Loveless Jr: and so we're going to be either going there or having it at Another one of the Cowboys lives here in Grand Prairie area and Ulysses. And so we might do it there, we're still trying to decide about that

George Irwin: and what's going to be best with everyone's schedule.

James Loveless Jr: So we're trying to do this in July. It's like planning a party with all of these different people involved and stuff. Oh man, it's more than a notion just trying to do this. And so I've got John Buxton, I don't know if you've ever heard of John Buxton. John, I befriended him on Facebook and he's helped me. He's done narrative paintings like this all his life. He started working. Okay, and so we've been in touch with him in order to get his advice on which is the best way to go to do this. I've done like one or two photo shoots so I'm trying to see if I can get some input on if I could do better, what was his plan in order to do a photo shoot and try to make sure I have everything that I need and dot it on my i's and cross down my t's on the way to

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: doing this successfully. Man that's... I love that you're doing that and putting in

George Irwin: you know, that level of research into these pieces that you're gonna be creating. That speaks to, you know I think a lot of times when I talk to artists about their process we kind of jump straight into the like what happens when you get the canvas out? But there's always... I mean for some artists I guess that's where it starts but up for up you know a lot of other artists there is just like so much prep work that happens way before before you get to that point. And that's really admirable. Then, to shoot your own, coordinate your own shoots and then shoot your reference like that is really fantastic.

James Loveless Jr: Roy, I found out a lot of other guys that have been doing this much longer than I have had been doing that kind of thing with their shoots with our paintings and stuff. So just taking a page out of what I've learned from them, that's what I been trying to do and focus on as I go forward. You know, I didn't invent the wheel, I'm just trying to keep the wheel going.

George Irwin: Yeah, well that's awesome! I mean you're doing a great job doing it. James one of the things that I love about your paintings is at least the pieces that are in New Western Talent is kind of how bright they are. Just a step back, Teal exactly. Yeah. Teal Cope Blake is commenting on here talking about getting your own reference photos and I know that's something he knows and a lot of other like very well respected artists do so.

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: I'm going to get your own references picks. Okay. I appreciate that too. Yeah. Yeah

George Irwin: I love it work is very colorful. Yeah, so anyway, so I was gonna say your the pieces you've gotten New Western Talent especially are So there's like they're really bright you have like an interesting Way that you look at I don't know the light because there's a wonderful kind of like Light source that you include in these pieces

James Loveless Jr: Yeah, I've always been interested in light as it goes with some of my favorite artists are like Caravaggio with the way that he did like in the chapels and stuff of Italy. And so with that, I enjoy trying to get the effects of light in the paintings that I do And so you'll see that quite a bit. And so that's one thing I really like. There is another artist, I can't call his name right now, but he really does a great job with color. And so I'm trying to inject more of that into my work with it being colorful and not too historical looking. Because I've seen a lot of paintings are historical and it's like well what happened to the aesthetic part you know and so I don't want to be that kind of artist. So yeah this is one of my just completed uh this is called let's get you back to mama awesome and so we have a horse of a of a rider rather a cowboy chasing a calf

James Loveless Jr: and i was thinking well i didn't want people to misconstrue what was going on he's not trying to

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: hurt the little calf, but he still had to get him back to the herd. So,

James Loveless Jr: getting them back to Bible. And so that's why I call it well, so that people would understand really what's going on in the piece that he's just trying to save the calf and get him to safety because he's just running. That's what herds do. That is what calves do they are even grown cattle if you get them stirred up they'll just start running. Yeah, you gotta go quickly toward them stuff like that. They'll

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: just take off, you know? Yeah, he doesn't help with trying to control our herd and get them

James Loveless Jr: to a destination to drove them to the destination so you know he's out here chasing this little

George Irwin: cat. So yeah I mean that's what it's all about right. I mean, that's so much of like what Yeah, what the cowboy day to day is, is just keeping the herd together I guess.

James Loveless Jr: Right, right. I've heard a lot at the stockyards, the Fort Worth Stockyards and I got an opportunity to see the drovers being trained and showing how they herd the cattle, how they drive the cattle and different techniques that they use in order to herd the cattle. So it was a class that I was shooting, and it was right there in back of the stock yours. But it showed me a lot about what they go through and how they're able to keep the cattle in check as they tried to drove them to their destinations. Very cool. So well, that's, that will, I'll there quite a bit in order to get my reference. Yeah so I want to talk about some of these

George Irwin: paintings in particular if that's all right. Sure! Back to the calf painting though, I love that the foreground in there with the, I don't know if those are like dandelions or cotton

James Loveless Jr: or queen anzalite. Right, I don't know the exact species of those... Or thistles maybe? Yeah but it grows in the desert as you can see so I figured well that would be interesting and kind of eye-catching and maybe soften the entire mood of the painting with a calf and followers and stuff and so that's That's why I would do something like that.

George Irwin: Yeah, that's really smart and I think it really kind of helps to reinforce your idea of getting the calf back to mama in a soft baby as opposed to thinking of it as more just wrangling the livestock. Right, right. That's the...

James Loveless Jr: Hopefully that appeals to women because they have a big influence in purchasing art so So I wanted to do that. Another thing that I did with this one is I do under paintings as I'll show you later, but this particular under painting I did in purple. And so there's little tinges of purple all the way through the painting so then it would kind of pop through and kinda give it a light kind of airy feeling to it and not too serious but just the fact that this cowboy is doing business and trying to do what he needs to, to save his calf even though it doesn't seem like to the calf like he's saving.

George Irwin: Right, right cool. Can we look at the one where you've got the bucking Bronco in the backlit of the sunset or sunrise?

James Loveless Jr: Right, right. My idea here was to come up with something that would be a significant or symbolic of the old west. Yeah. So I thought of the western skies, I thought about the horse bucking and kind of being symbolic of the west so i was trying to really develop a symbol instead of our icon what the west is So that's kind of how I came up with the idea. As I went forward, I did a little thing with the sun that is peeking through its belly. There wasn't much more reference. I just added that. The effect of light coming through and then also with this, the rays of light come in through there,

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: I added that to my reference.

James Loveless Jr: And of course, these different photographs kind of probably took five different photographs and kind of put everything together, I do it in Photoshop first. And then I've just developed that technique so that I'm able to show, especially on my commission work that the customer is able to see

George Irwin: how everything will look before I even finish the painting.

James Loveless Jr: So it's very close. And then of course as I go forward, I add things, I subtract things hopefully to make the painting better as I move forward.

George Irwin: Yeah, of course. But yeah, that's a great technique and... Can you back it up just a little bit on that painting? That's great. Yeah, that really is like just kind of like a really great, like you're saying kind of iconography of a Western idea. That's awesome.

James Loveless Jr: Right, right I was planning to do some more there would be like this because I was thinking of the buffalo

George Irwin: would be another symbol of the West, you know?

James Loveless Jr: And they always kind of have a tendency to overemphasize the size of the buffalo in the painting by coming doing close up and you can see his eyes

George Irwin: and all the gills.

James Loveless Jr: I was thinking of doing something that would be a pretty big painting, maybe 30 by 40, something like that. And so it would show how big the buffalo were. But you know, compared to a lot of other animals, they weren't, they're not that big but they, you know the icon of them, the idea of them being these huge animals to emphasize in the painting. So I was planning to do something like that.

George Irwin: That's a cool idea. I love how this one is backlit, and you managed to keep it feeling like it really is back lit at the same time, it's not just like a silhouette. You went ahead and put the detail in there.

James Loveless Jr: Right I had done a painting like this before and uh I did not have that much detail in the cowboy and rider and I wasn't satisfied with it and so this is like second generation people wonder why you charge so much? I'm like you know what I had to do I had to make another painting before that.

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Oh my goodness and research that but that's what happens.

George Irwin: And when I did this one, this time,

James Loveless Jr: I wanted to make sure there was something in the cowboy so that you would be able to see the details of what was going on there. So it wouldn't be just a simple silhouette but actually more than that.

George Irwin: Yeah, and you also you put in the time To also make sure like the all the details and the tack and everything is accurate right James

James Loveless Jr: That's right. That's why on this particular horse You know I only learned this by looking at reference books about reference books to find out about

George Irwin: how the tack was during

James Loveless Jr: Like this is 1883 I got this is called 1883 cowboy. Yeah, so the fact in here is specific to that era, the saddle, the hat that he has on all those things are indicative of the 1880s cowboy. So it's a look through the history book and find where those things or so I'm able to make sure that they reflect that in the piece. And I know a lot collectors that really know about this stuff. Look at that and if it's not correct you'll hear about it, and I don't want to hear about

George Irwin: it. I just want to do it right. Yeah well that's great. I mean that's awesome James. So also you used to be... I know you said you put some like these collages together in Photoshop You used to be a graphic designer and then... That's where I started with graphic design.

James Loveless Jr: Coming out of art school, I went to the Kansas City Art Institute and I worked as a package designer, a graphic designer. I did illustrations for Ross and Karina and Kentucky Fried Chicken and all kinds of folks. So that's how I learned about some of these techniques. And some of them, I learned a great deal by looking at YouTube, believe it or not. So that really helpful for me. So anything that I don't know, I look it up on YouTube and it's got the answer.

George Irwin: That's one of the like, yeah, that's the wild thing about being able to, you know, to try new things in these times. You can look up most anything you need to know.

James Loveless Jr: Right? That's it. That's It. So this one is one that I'm starting. It's called Fort Worth Stockyards. And it shows the stockyards back in the day when they would drive the cattle down the street. And so I've got the old signs that are there. I haven't started putting paint on this one yet. I've started out with charcoal and pencil, but so you can see kind of some of the things that are going on, the old wagon, chip wagon in the back with the people inside and all the little dog in front. So we're trying to get the idea the, of it being old and back in the day and not really right now. And of course I shot this guy's name is Donald Lee. He was one of the drovers for the Fort Worth herd. And so I was able to get him to pose for me during that time that they were being instructed on how to do the care. So they have special specialists come in that are cowboys, that are trainers,

James Loveless Jr: and they teach the drovers how to do their jobs. So I was able to get in on that just by happenstance. And so I was glad to be there because when the cattle come down, they come down the street there in the stockyards twice a day, but the whole drive takes about maybe 15 minutes. And so you got to really shoot in the space of 15 minutes to get some workable kind of photographs. So it really helps that I was able to shoot like all morning about four, three or four hours and I was going to shoot then I came back and shot the other drive in the evening too. So it, it really worked out.

George Irwin: But yeah. So James, I'm curious because I've seen, I saw this one, like colorized on your website, I think Old Town Road.

James Loveless Jr: Right, right. That particular painting was purchased by the Pierce Museum. They purchased that to my surprise, I couldn't believe it. I was like really?

George Irwin: You wanna buy it?

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Yes, where are we?

James Loveless Jr: So this one is gonna be different. I'ma do different colors in the sky, kind of a different colors this, try to experiment with the color. People seem to like the composition so I figured maybe

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: if i change the color a little bit I could do it again. Yeah that's my idea. Well yeah that's what I'm planning to do. Well I mean it's you know everything you learned like almost

George Irwin: like a study like everything you learn from doing the last one you can apply to this one and then also, you know, make whatever changes you want to.

James Loveless Jr: Exactly, exactly. This one is a one that I've started, and it's more like how it starts something that is not so detailed and with the small lettering and all this kind of stuff. And so I started out as a monochromatic painting or improviser. And then I'm able to get, you don't start from there get a rip the idea of my uh values how dark things are how light things are but this is nowhere near finish it's just the beginning sure of how this is you know this is a buffalo soldier right awesome

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: so that's what that's on the thing in the studio right now yeah so

George Irwin: Is that your was that your easel there? That piece was that you're working on

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Yeah, this is my easel. I want to get a bigger one because I want

George Irwin: to make bigger paintings but yeah, this

James Loveless Jr: is it for now. This is it

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: for now what again? Right. I like those kind that you can just

James Loveless Jr: kind of move the whole painting up and down as you work on it. I really like that so it's pretty expensive to get that kind of easel but i think it'll be worth it

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: as long as I keep selling these bad boys. Yeah, awesome. So you also were juried into the oil

James Loveless Jr: painters of America's exhibition this year right? Right, that was a piece called with Roosevelt in Cuba in 1898 because I work with a historian by the name of Henry B. Crawford and Mr. Crawford was the curator of the Texas Tech Museum.

George Irwin: Oh, wow.

James Loveless Jr: So with right. So he helped me with the cartridge belt that he was wearing, the hat, the colors, the scarf all those little details to make sure that everything was right because he specializes in Buffalo soldiers so with that it really added a certain air of getting things right with him and had him in on the project. So if anybody asks me about things not being quite right, I direct them to Mr. Henry B. Crawford. I am not

George Irwin: the historian, I'm just the bearer of the news. Don't kill the messenger. You're the messenger, right? Nonetheless, I think it's great that you are finding these sources to verify the pieces of your work that you want to be accurate.

James Loveless Jr: Yeah, I'm just so glad to be able to do this because I've got 14 grandkids, George.

George Irwin: You backed up there a little bit James. We're just looking straight up your nose for a second. Looking into my chair, right?

James Loveless Jr: I was just thinking, but I wanted them to know their legacy with their grandfather

George Irwin: and how it's been for Cowboys of the West

James Loveless Jr: in trying to make sure that the women of the west, the native Americans, Mexican-Americans all were part of that history and trying to reflect that in my painting. So hopefully after I go away from here, that they'll know about some of their history and some of what would happen in the past.

George Irwin: Yeah, I mean, that's so important and I think that I'm glad that you are working so hard to tell that story and it's starting to come to light a little more these days than it has in the pass but as you were saying, it's still like so many underrepresented demographics in cowboy and Western art. And it's nice to start to see a little bit more of varied representation in there.

James Loveless Jr: I just hope that we can continue on the same vein in the future so that more people, I know that Mark Maggiore, I'm sure you've heard of him that he's doing more Black Cowboys now. I've seen several huge paintings that he has done and some sketches and so forth that he is doing Viqueiro's and Black Cowboys. So it's important that everyone they can see in the history of the United States

George Irwin: what happened and stuff.

James Loveless Jr: So I'm excited about that and for the Pierce Museum to get involved with me in trying to portray this, I'm really excited about them doing this.

George Irwin: Yeah, that's fantastic. That's fantastic! I see the little one down there that maybe it's the third one that we've gotten the New Western Talent where the guys crossing the river.

James Loveless Jr: All right let's get a shot of that one.

George Irwin: Yeah, and so... That's another one. So, so sparkly.

James Loveless Jr: Yeah, that's what I was shooting for with this one because you can't really show the light without having darkness. So I tried to make it dark so that the light of the water and the reflection and stuff would pop. And in my reference, I didn't have that reflection in, I wanted it there and I was able to do that in Photoshop so that when I painted I would know exactly where things were going so that it was helpful with that aspect of it. So I put in the reflection and a couple of other things changed some colors of it so the yellows will really pop. So it's I wanted it to be colorful because I know they're mixing the darker colors with the brighter high chroma colors makes everything you know nice and bright. So I like that effect so that's what that's when I went with this small piece it's only 9 by 12 is a small piece

James Loveless Jr: but it's good to go ready to hang on the wall like it is right now. There you go yeah it's

George Irwin: a nice frame um and then yeah can we take another look at the other the third piece

James Loveless Jr: in there with cowboys and the sunset. Okay yeah I call that Chisholm Trail 1857 it was the first year that the Chisholsm trail started when they started driving the cattle up north to Canada so they could get on the trains there and ship them east and because of the there were so many cattle in the plains areas that they weren't worth that much. But once you got the cattle to the eastern part of the United States, they wanted those stakes and stuff. So it became a lot more valuable the way that you could take cattle to the east. So I wanted to show that even got the little dog here just to show how he is uh helping

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: hurt the cattle yeah but they had dogs that really helped do that and they would bark at

James Loveless Jr: the cattle and they wouldn't move because they didn't want to be around anything that disturbed

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: their peace so yeah even though the dog is a lot smaller, they would run away from the dog

James Loveless Jr: So if they wanted to, if they were steering off too far from the herd, their dog would bark out and then they'd get back in line.

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: So all of that was going on.

George Irwin: The I, you know, growing up in like, I grew up in the mid cities in between Dallas and Fort Worth and right next to Chisholm park is what it was called. And so I was always like, always liked the idea of the Chisholm Trail was always like a big kind of like mythology in my brain when I

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: as a kid. That's awesome. Right, right yeah we live near the Chisholsm Trail it's

James Loveless Jr: probably three miles from where we lived and so I've been able to go there and take some reference photographs to know how the Chism Trail looks and stuff. It's really this particular part is a lot more plainsy looking, it's a lot

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: more wooded where we are here in Fort Worth. So, uh, uh...

George Irwin: It's further up.

James Loveless Jr: You know, it's a long trail so it's got a lot of dimension going through the states.

George Irwin: Yeah. Well very nice! Very nice. I'm just blown away again like every year in New Western Talent I find out about more artists that I had not known about, that are just so talented and I'm really grateful to have found out about your work James. And thank you for showing us around your studio and telling us about your

James Loveless Jr: work. Well it's been a pleasure, I appreciate you and I hope we can do this again lots more time.

George Irwin: Yeah definitely! We'll have to get together in person sometime.

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: Okay, that sounds like a plan. Cool. Yeah I'm in West Fort Worth right off of Cat

George Irwin: Bowie West. Alright, I'm on the other side of town, I mean I'm

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: in the Dallas area but I get over there sometimes. Okay I didn't realize that I

George Irwin: thought you were in Fort Worth. No not right now. But yeah well cool well thank you so much James it's been it's gonna pleasure thank you everybody else who tuned in and commented and threw some questions in and be sure to check out the close-up to James' work in New Western Talent on western.gallery and James what's your I guess he's your Instagram handles right on here and your website is jameslovelessart.com that's the one so check it all out and thanks again

George Irwin / James Loveless Jr: and we'll see you next time appreciate you thanks so much George talk to you

George Irwin: soon alright James thank you bye