TJ Cunningham

Born in 1988, TJ Cunningham grew up in the quintessential, little New England town of Cambridge, Vermont, where he spent most of his time outdoors. The small farms, wooded hills and shallow streams of his boyhood haunts were fertile with inspiration. It was the perfect place to awaken a desire to create. TJ pursued this desire into adulthood by studying commercial art at Pensacola Christian College. It was there that he discovered oil paint. He often describes the experience as, “love at first sight.”

Since the beginning of TJ’s career in fine art, he has come to focus on the landscape and spends much of his time outdoors painting from life. His work continues to grow in notoriety. In 2014 Southwest Art highlighted Cunningham as one of America’s emerging artists in their annual “21 under 31” article. He has received numerous awards including “Best overall Oil” in the November/October 7th Annual Plein Air Salon. He has also received, 1st Place Landscape (2016), Honorable Mention (2016), 5th Place (2014) and Exceptional Merit (2013) from The Portrait Society of America.

Despite his focus and success, TJ lives a well-balanced life. He and his wife Julie, a fellow art student from college, share in the joy of two beautiful sons.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.