Brad Teare
Brad Teare was born in Moscow, Idaho in 1956. His childhood was spent in Manhattan, Kansas; the early part of his career, in New York City, where he freelanced as an illustrator for the New York Times and helped design book covers for Random House. In between, he returned to the Northwest and helped build part of the Pacific Crest Trail through the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area in Washington state. This time in the outdoors can be seen as the foundation for the work he does today, which has earned him international recognition as an oil painter depicting the stunning landscapes of the American West.
Texture is the hallmark of Teare’s artwork. He says, “What I offer collectors is more than a depiction of a place — it’s a physical experience of light, motion, and time embedded in the surface. What sets my work apart is its emphasis on paint as substance. The surface has a sculptural quality that can’t be replicated digitally, and that authenticity is something collectors respond to.”
Teare’s education featured studying illustration at the University of Idaho and Utah State University. He has attended residencies at the Maynard Dixon home in Utah and Trinchera Ranch in Colorado, exhibited at the Salmagundi Club and Forbes Galleries in New York, received recognition from the American Impressionist Society and is a Signature Member of the elite group of painters. His work is regularly featured in sold-out shows at the Eiteljorg Museum and has appeared in major publications including Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, and International Artist. He has been painting full-time since 2001.
Teare has resided in Providence, Utah since 1994. His home in the Cache Valley of the Rocky Mountains provides endless inspiration. Perhaps more than the scenery he paints as his subjects, it is the paint itself that is Teare’s biggest source of inspiration. He has been obsessed with palette knife painting since first incorporating it into his artwork in 2006. Painting with thickly applied oil paints enables Teare to play with dimension and texture in a manner that is akin to sculpting.
Teare is a deep thinker when it comes to his approach to painting, often offering a fascinating insight into the career of an artist that has risen to the top of the art world. To viewers studying his work, he says, “From 50 feet away, that’s the design level, and you see the basic design of shapes. From 5 feet, you see the linear qualities — a tree, a mountain, the things themselves. And from 5 inches away, you see the abstract quality of the paint strokes. When I’m in the studio, I find myself moving around a lot. Stepping back from a distance. You learn a lot about your work by stepping back and just looking.”
The end result of a Brad Teare painting is a stunning, richly textured depiction of some of the earth’s most incredible landscapes.
