Exhibitions

STEVE WARINER: THE FLIP SIDE

Monthaven / 1017 Antebellum Cir., Hendersonville, TN June 21 - July 26th

Steve Wariner

Steve Wariner is well known to true-blue country music fans. Over the course of a 50-plus-year music career, the famed songwriter and instrumentalist sent more than a dozen songs to the top of the country music charts. Less well known is Wariner’s parallel passion for painting.

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center will shine a spotlight on Wariner’s visual art works in The Flip Side: Paintings by Steve Wariner. The exhibit will feature 60 of Wariner’s works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media. It will be the most prominent display of Wariner’s artworks since 2013’s Wariner’s Watercolors at the Tennessee State Museum.

Wariner has pursued painting with alacrity since childhood. Growing up in suburban Indiana, he was inspired to paint by his brother David, a gifted professional artist known for his book and album-cover illustrations. Wariner was especially attracted to watercolor.

Wariner’s watercolor style is loose and spontaneous, resulting in images he refers to as “washy.” His preferred subjects often reflect the people and places he has seen during his many travels as a musician. Rural landscapes, seascapes, portraits and guitars often figure prominently in his paintings. Another focus are his paintings of musicians, like the club singer and jazz trio seen in his watercolor “The Crooning.”

Interestingly, he resisted painting in oil for years. But starting in 2020, he began to experiment. Oil paintings like his “Purple Presence” are richly layered and textured, with the artist sometimes spending weeks on one work. Wariner now works in multiple mediums, from oil to encaustic. He also seems perfectly at home painting works that are both representational and abstract.