FinnertyArt.com

“Jim Finnerty is an accomplished graphic designer by day, and in particular, one of the old guard: the kind that still use pencils on drafting boards. (I italicize for the benefit of those readers in the marketing business, who will let out an audible gasp upon reading this fact.) And as anyone with a graphic design background will tell you, this usually is the mark of a designer who takes design very seriously as a craft, and values composition and form above the often-gimmicky special effects of computer graphics. The reason I begin this art review on such observations about Finnerty’s career is that it really makes a difference when you view his carefully arranged painted compositions. Perhaps the only other specialist he might be mistaken for at an art show is a pilot; one viewer inquired as much when he saw Finnerty’s geometric compositions, because so many of them resemble the aerial views of fields and cities one might see from an airplane window.

Finnerty’s works are truly stories about color, and because he so often squeezes the paint directly from the tube (without mixing), the brighter hues glow with the luminescence the manufacturer dreamed of at the paint factory. “I never use brushes,” says Finnerty. “I smear it on with palette knives, rags, and whatever else I can get my hands on.” Finnerty’s paintings are composed of acrylics on canvas, but because he uses the flat canvas boards, they are able to be framed behind glass and in matted frames, as though they were works on paper. Again this finishing of work, this tailored presentation, are likely a reflection of his neatness and professionalism after years as a commercial artist. “

- Stacey Williams Ng