A vast collection of acrylic on canvas or canvasboard works (46 in total), and several hundred watercolors on paper, all the work of James Lee Guest, Jr., a surgeon turned outsider/self taught painter beginning in the 1970s.æ The works are generally inclined toward thought provoking abstract portraits, with a number of broader compositions included.æ A fine opportunity for a dealer who has interest in the genre.

Dr. James Lee Guest, Jr. (American, 1931-2017) was born into a military family in 1931. He spent his childhood moving across the United States including Cleveland, Brooklyn, and Hawaii, even living in the Philippines. Guest graduated from high school early, at the age of 15, and went on to study medicine, becoming a doctor at 23. He completed his residencies at Vanderbilt University and the Medical College of Georgia. After four years of teaching medicine, Dr. Guest settled in Alabama with his family and opened a private practice as a surgeon. Though he retired his private practice in 2000, he continued to perform surgeries at a Veteran Hospital and the Alabama prison system. It was not until his 70s, that Dr. Guest became an artist. Self-taught and working with acrylics, watercolors, and pastels, Dr. Guest used art to continue healing- others and himself. He was heavily influenced by faith, travel and music, and used his medical experience as well as Catholic pilgrimages to produce compositions ranging from abstract to figural.

Shipping will not be available for this item in-house.æ The entire collection is currently stored in a single gaylord box.æ Many watercolors with bowed paper, most canvases in good condition.