Forrest Moses was born in Virginia in May of 1934. He attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he received a BA degree in Fine Arts in 1956. He entered Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York for two years of graduate work in design in 1959.

Moses began his professional career as an artist in Houston, Texas at the David Gallery in 1965. That same year he moved to the isolated Monterey Peninsula in California to bond with the land and sea, which was to become the foundation of his life's work. In 1969 Moses moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he became friends with the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

For the past 40 years his work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in a wide array of premier national and international museums, most notably the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; World Collection, Yokohama, Japan; Pratt Institute, NY and Art Dumonde, Tokyo. Corporate collections include Citibank, Hilton Hotel and IBM.

Forrest Moses is currently represented by LewAllen Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Meredith Long Gallery in Houston, Texas and I. Wolk Gallery in St. Helena, California. His monotypes are priced from $4,500 to $10,000 and his paintings range from $20,000 to $60,000 each.

Forrest Moses Winter Pond 2005 Oil on canvas 78 x 50 inches LewAllen Contemporary

Art Interview: What was growing up like for you?

Forrest Moses: Well, I grew up in a small town in Virginia. There were two junior colleges that had art departments there. It was a long time ago: I was born in 1934 so there wasn't a big art scene anywhere except maybe in New York. But I started making art on Saturdays when I was 9 years old with teachers from both of those colleges.

Art Interview: And what were the names of those colleges?

Forrest Moses: One was called Averett College and the other was Stratford College. I was very fortunate to have them; otherwise I can't imagine where I could have gotten access to the arts. There were no museums around. At that time my parents weren't traveling. We didn't go to New York or Europe. It was prewar time so I didn't really get into serious exposure to art until later. I did start going to New York in high school and became exposed to the art there, which was quite a revelation for me. That really turned my mind around.

I went to the Washington and Lee University where I graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in 1956. After serving in the Navy I also attended Pratt Institute in New York starting in 1959.

At Washington and Lee University I majored in fine arts and I got an art history background. We had a studio curriculum and it was very well rounded. It was a liberal arts degree, which was about philosophy and art history. I think it was a perfect education, just what I needed for the future, but who knew that I would be a fulltime painter someday. My art teacher at that university didn't have a clue about how to create artists. He was trying to create collectors, if anything, just trying to educate people and raise their awareness of the arts. But I think I was fortunate that I didn't have the strong influence of a very dynamic teacher. That would have possibly imprinted me in a way that I would have to try to get over. That happens so much to artists when they are young, teachers influence them to such a degree that they never really develop their own personal vision. Anyway, I started with art as a Saturday student and I stayed with it through high school. I believe that having such an experience at an early age helped develop my abilities to see things differently. It is like a child growing up with music who develops an ear for listening but instead I visualize.

Art Interview: And what did your father do for a living?

Forrest Moses Beaver Pond 2005 Oil on canvas 50 x 52 inches LewAllen Contemporary

Forrest Moses: My father was a businessman. He had an insurance agency. He was in the background supporting everything. He was encouraging. You could tell that he was quite proud of my accomplishments even at a very early age. My mother had a lot of enthusiasm and energy. I think kids need attention and encouragement. My extended family framed artworks from my endeavors and that made an impression on me. It made me feel as if I had something special to offer and so I continued with it. It was not a driving passion just something that I did and it became a part of me not separate.

Art Interview: Was there a point when your family became concerned that you were not going to follow a normal career path?

Forrest Moses: They watched and listened and went through all of my struggles to have a legitimate secure occupation. After college I went into the Navy for 3 years, stationed in the Philippines and traveled to Japan twice on leave. It changed my mind and I found a home for Japanese aesthetics within my heart where they still live. After the Navy I traveled through Europe for another year. Traveling in Europe put me in contact with the architectural arts rather than painting. The Scandinavian countries at that time were very developed in contemporary furnishings and architecture. But I didn't see much in Europe at that time as far as contemporary painting was concerned.

Forrest Moses M 05/36 2005 Monotype 43 x 31 inches LewAllen Contemporary

I decided to go back to school for another 2 years to study something I could make a living from. I didn't want an academic profession as a teacher. One of my criteria was that I wanted to make a living from something that I really loved doing. I didn't want my interest in the arts to be a hobby. I wanted to study something that would keep me in touch with all of the visual arts. So I studied design at the Pratt Institute in New York City. The courses were Bauhaus-based. I designed fabrics, furniture, interiors and made ceramics but I also had access to a large studio outside of Lexington, Virginia and painted each summer. That led to a show at the Washington and Lee University, in Lexington. So painting remained a major part of my life.

At that time in the early 60s there wasn't any indication that you could make a living as a painter. There were essentially few galleries in the United States outside of New York. It wasn't a developed industry the way it is today. Of course, New York was a developing place for contemporary art. My serious interest in painting developed while I was in school in New York.

I was at Pratt for two years. Every student at Pratt went through a foundation year and it was one of the most valuable things I have ever done. It was basically Bauhaus instruction in scale, dimension and proportion. It was extraordinary and I still think that way. It helped me when I was designing professional interiors and architecture. My house in Santa Fe has often been photographed and published. Its been photographed for the New York Times, in European magazines, Japanese magazines a number of books and American shelter magazines and even just last year it was featured in Western Interiors Magazine. Those years at Pratt gave me something very valuable for my life even though I left the business of Design to be a full time painter

Art Interview: After you were at Pratt you went to Houston, is that correct?

Forrest Moses: I went to Houston after a brief period in Dallas. I worked there for three years with a company before I started painting full-time. I had reached the point in my life where I had to make the decision to become a painter. As a designer there is much compromise for the sake of business and I was not good at that.

Art Interview: Were you financially stable enough to do that?

Forrest Moses: Well, it depends on how you are willing to live. When you are young you dream and take chances on your dreams. I had saved a couple of thousand dollars and my father had given me a van. I also had a friend who knew that I was painting all the time and he said: Well, you need to come to Los Angeles and share this large house with me that I have been given for a year. I'll introduce you to the galleries in Los Angeles." He told me: This is what you should be doing. So I said: "Well that sounds good" and I moved to California. The house deal fell through. I moved up the coast to the Monterey Peninsula and found a little studio that was quite inexpensive. You know you can live carefully and I did. I managed to live without having to go to work. My paintings were inexpensive and people noticed them, I had made a gallery connection in Houston before I left so I would go back there once a year and leave a year's worth of work with them. Then I would go back to California and start working all over again. I also had a gallery in San Francisco. I did that for three or four years. I was very happy with the freedom to paint and live on my own terms.

Art Interview: Where your paintings similar to what you are doing now?

Forrest Moses Shallow Blue Pond 2005 Oil on Canvas 42 x 96 inches

Forrest Moses: I was just starting out then, trying to find my way. I was a bit isolated. But I was always more interested in landscape paintings than anything else. Landscape has always been the inspiration for my work. The work has changed naturally as an evolution. I grew from exposure and work. I also did a lot of ceramics. There was a wonderful workshop there as part of the adult program of the University of California. I had a show of my ceramic work in Houston one year and I was quite passionate about it. I even considered the full time work as a potter. I am still passionate about pots but now I am a collector rather than making them. Especially Japanese tea bowls.

Art Interview: Were you working in a post impressionist style?

Forrest Moses: Yes, more or less. I've always painted my inspiration from the land. I think my work now is a lot more about painting than it was originally. It was more about imagery in the beginning because of the things I was drawn to and liked to look at. But now I focus on the actual physical act of painting itself. It has become a more abstract process and the image is less important to the work than it used to be.

Art Interview: So you are becoming more expressionistic?

Forrest Moses: I think so. I think the work is more expressionistic.

Art Interview: Have you always done landscapes?

Forrest Moses Drawings of the male figure Graphite on paper

Forrest Moses: Yes, I always have and since I've been living in Santa Fe I've also drawn the figure. I've never painted the figure, but I think Egon Schiele's work was such a dynamic influence on me that I began drawing the figure. I drew it for quite a while but I don't anymore. I used to have shows of figure drawings and I was very good but unlike Willem de Kooning the inspiration did not develop beyond drawing.

An important part of my development was when I was in California living alone. I was spending a lot of time on the coast. I went through a kind of a spiritual awakening there. I discarded everything from my religious background that I felt was not about truth. All organized religion ...So I was sort of out there in the wilderness with no direction what so ever in terms of spiritual practice. The energy and power of the ocean, rocks and landscape became very powerful spiritual presences for me. They guided me into the future. I felt that by observing, witnessing and feeling the earth I could find everything I needed to know about the universe. All I had to do was listen to the voices of nature. That is my spiritual practice. That is really what my work is still about. It's not about design or imagery as much as it is about my experience of being in the land and growing out of that. My work as a painter and my spiritual life are one.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) "A woman on her back" 1501-1504 Gouache and Pencil 31,7 X 48,2 cm Öffentliche Kunstsammlungen Basel

Art Interview: How old were you when you were in California?

Forrest Moses: I was in my early thirties. At that time all the self-help books and spiritual awakening hadn't started yet. That came out in the early sixties about the time the hippie revolution happened in San Francisco. I was a witness to all that as well. The coastline where I was living was very beautiful. It's very powerful with crushing waves and there are hot springs south of the Monterey peninsula. It's the kind of site where Joan Baez would give concerts and young people from San Francisco would come down to sit on the grass smoking dope. I didn't get high but everybody else did. I was a little too old for all that drug culture and afraid too to be distracted from the motivation of painting. But it was quite a good time; there was the Monterey Pop Festival, which brought in contemporary music.

The only thing that drove me away from California was the climate on the coast. It was often foggy and cold. I needed good weather. San Francisco was beautiful but it wasn't sophisticated in terms of art. New York really was still, at that time, the only place for a professional artist. But I made a pact with myself early on, that I was going to sacrifice the career that New York would offer. You know, I wasn't much of a career driver. I was more of a life driver. I wanted a balanced life rather than being so concerned about building a name. When you decide to live in a small town that's what you get, you don't get the big art thing because the critics aren't there, nobody sees you.

Art Interview: How did you end up in Santa Fe, New Mexico?

Forrest Mose's home-studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo by Dominique Vorillon © 2005

Forrest Moses: When I was moving from Texas to California in 1965 I went through Santa Fe because I had a friend who lived there. That's how I discovered it for the first time. It is a remarkable place. I came through in the summer and I almost didn't go to California because I liked it so much. But I'd made a commitment to go to California so I went. When I left California I went back to Houston to teach at the University of Houston. A friend of mine had asked me to come and fill in for an artist on sabbatical. While I was there I was homeless not actually physically but spiritually and I didn't know where I was going to live. But after some time I moved to Santa Fe and bought the house that I am still living in. That was in 1969 and I said to myself: Well, I've got to be somewhere and the landscape here is so extraordinary and so varied that there is a lifetime of work right here. That's how it sort of developed. At that time Santa Fe was just a sleepy little town. It hadn't developed into the major art scene it has since become and the houses were still affordable back then. I was lucky to own a house. In life, timing is everything. For me it was a place to live and work, a sanctuary of grounding and shelter. So my house just became one of my creative endeavors. As it grew, it changed and I changed with it. We take care of each other, we are friends. I call it my " Tara".

Art Interview: Is it also one of your artworks?

Forrest Moses: Yes of course.

Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) Globular 1928 Polished brass Collection of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, Inc. Photograph by Michio Noguchi

Art Interview: And I understand that you and Isamu Noguchi became friends when he bought a piece of property behind your house. Is that true?

Forrest Moses: Yeah, there was land behind my place that had a ruin of a house on it. Noguchi loved New Mexico and he bought that property for his sister. She settled here and he had a place to be in New Mexico. Noguchi was someone whose work I loved. One day when I was watering my garden he walked in. We became friends over the course of that weekend and I took him to some land sites that I knew he would enjoy. I also drove him over to meet with Georgia O'Keeffe.

Art Interview: Were you aware that Noguchi bought the land behind your house?

Forrest Moses: Yes, it was well known.

Art Interview: Was he an influence for you to buy your house?

Forrest Moses: No, I already owned my house before he bought the land.

Art Interview: So, after you became friends with Noguchi the two of you visited Georgia O'Keeffe?

Forrest Moses: Correct. He asked me to drive him to Abiquiu where she lived. He had been invited for lunch. Noguchi did not drive. It was a great day; lunch with Noguchi and O'Keeffe.

Art Interview: And what was your opinion of O'Keeffe?

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