Myles Cavanaugh is an artist (painter and sculptor) living and working in Lambertville, NJ. His subjects consist primarily of landscape and figurative work, often expressing a timeless and pensive mood and feeling.

Myles was born in 1974 and raised in Lambertville New Jersey. He grew up in an artistic family, and was encouraged to take on any artistic endeavors that interested him. By the age of fifteen he had begun to paint, make prints, and metal sculptures using lost wax techniques, in his family’s wood stove. Before graduating high school Myles started taking drawing and painting courses at a local community college and area arts center.

     In 1992, he began his formal education at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn NY. After two years of intense study he was presented with the opportunity to stay in Spain with family friends. After spending four months there he returned to Lambertville and in 1995 had his first solo exhibition with the paintings he created in Spain. “Pratt gave me a strong foundation, an understanding of how to learn and a good work ethic.” After his first exhibition Myles decided not to return to Pratt, but to embrace his career as an artist. In 1996 he returned to Spain and lived there for a year. “I found Spain unbelievably inspiring; that year in particular was an education in itself, I fell in love with the people and light and discovered many artists that I had never heard of before.”

     For the next decade Myles continued to travel to Spain and other countries. In 2003, he was awarded the Valparaiso Fellowship to paint in Mojacar, Spain.  He would return to Lambertville to paint and exhibit his work in self-produced exhibitions. “I would rent an unlikely venue for an exhibition, such as a vacant store, or fire house. I’ve always loved doing it myself,  there are no restrictions.” In 2006 he opened Myles Cavanaugh Fine Art, gallery and studio in Lambertville, NJ to exhibit and sell his work.

Statement

To me, the most important characteristic a work of art can have is emotion, without it in my opinion it can never reach the realm of  “beautiful”.  Emotion is what I look for in my subjects and try to convey in my work. For inspiration I look to the artists of my area, the Bucks County Impressionists I’m inspired by their representations of people working, often farming, in harmony with nature. I am also influenced by John Singer Sargent, Alexander Calder, the Ashcan School and the Spanish contemporary artist Antonio Lopez Garcia.