Paco Young

  A true outdoorsman, Paco Young is blessed with an uncommon ability to paint in the field. Landscapes are often the inspiration for his paintings, with wildlife serving as a counterpoint to the painting's overall conceptual framework.
    He has, for as long as he can remember, been the happiest when roaming the woods or fly-fishing a trout stream. His greatest artistic gift is to bring this love of nature to his canvas, to share it with the viewer. It was his love of the outdoors that first prompted Paco Young to carry along a sketchpad and pencils on his boyhood field trips. He wanted to capture on paper the oak groves, waterfalls, ponds, and the creatures who lived in that environment. His talent surfaced early and his paintings began to sell when he was only a teenager.
    Young had five years of formal training at the Memphis Academy of Arts, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As with many contemporary schools of art, Memphis leaned toward the avant-garde, regarding realism as something not worth pursuing. However, Paco Young had other ideas about the direction his own art would take: he would continue to paint the outdoors and its wildlife in their natural habitat. With the technical skills he acquired, and with his own natural abilities, Paco's paintings began to attract the attention of the art world as he traveled extensively to local and regional art shows.
    In 1990, Young's artwork was selected by the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's "Wildlife: The Artists View", putting him in the national spotlight. In 1991 and 1992 he was named, "Best of Show" by the Southern Maryland Wildlife Festival, and in 1994 he was named "Featured Artist" at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina. Soon, Paco Young was being recognized as one of the rising stars of wildlife art.
    Paco Young has the unique ability to paint from life in the field, undaunted by wind, rain, snow, or blazing sun.
    He says, "I paint from real life experiences in the field. I find that I'm usually inspired first by a landscape or setting that seems ideal in terms of composition and design - they must exist within the conceptual framework of the painting, yet remain true  to their natural mannerisms; this is the great challenge of the wildlife painter."
    To Paco Young, "Working from life - seeing pure form, pure light - is pure painting, pure art. In the field, I am not tied to techniques and tools; it is in nature that I find the spontaneity and spirit of wildlife art."