MEASUREMENTS: 22"HX24"W FRAMED, MINT CONDITION/"in the style of"James Havard was an American painter and sculptor. He was a pioneer of abstract illusionism in the 1970s. In the 1980s he changed his style into a form of abstract expressionism influenced by Native American and tribal cultures as well as outsider art.His palette varies from dark, rich, and contrasting colors to bright blues and reds. Rich textures and visually arresting but crudely rendered figures define his work. Many of his paintings seem visually dense. One collector of Havard's paintings remembered his initial uniformed response to them: "What a mixed up mess these are." In 2006 Havard suffered a stroke but continues to paint. This well-trained artist who for many years was inspired by outsider art has become an outsider himself in the sense that he now paints with the constraints of a physical handicap. Due to Havard's limited mobility, his most recent works are small in scale, but "are nonetheless extremely powerful, perhaps even more so because the reduced format concentrates them."/Private collection, no documentation.