“Painting is like visual music,
colors sounding like the opening
of a Beethoven Symphony”

James M. Colley, born in Anniston, Alabama, began drawing at a very young age.  Even before high school, he began studying under Florence McIntyre in Memphis, Tennessee.  During the late 1950’s while studying on the university level, his work took on the post impressionism style, mixed with Texas humor and the realism of Texas itself.  Much like the optimistic outlook by society, Colley was optimistic in his work.

After completing a Bachelors of Fine Art at the University of Texas at Austin, Colley continued graduate studies at the University of California in Berkley.  Even though art was to be visual music, somehow the music ended.  The style of the time, abstract, was a style Jim wasn’t completely happy with.  He returned to Austin to complete his graduate studies and began work with “the human figure in its environment, images of a person capable of action.”  He felt an “individual should have the potential for impact on the environment, not just a creature captured by its environment.”

This style has continued, as in his works on runners, rowers, Turtle Creek images, and others.  He has accomplished numerous commissions, many showings, and several exhibitions.  His most satisfying work was the “Triptic Summer Sunlight-Turtle Creek” which was done for the North Texas Regional Cancer Center.  The entrance fountain for the Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, is also one of his stunning works, as well as paintings for LTV Aerospace, L.S.I. Industries, a piece for Mark Thatcher, and also works for Vester Hughes, including a portrait.

Colley has mellowed over the years, and is currently working on pieces on the heart of America, family roots and such.  He has recently completed several family portraits as well as other commissions.  Although Colley works with oils, watercolors, and several other mediums, he states that watercolors are where he is at home the most.