Art of Sam Yeates
About the Artist and Contact
​ Work is currently available at Worrell Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Sam Yeates bio courtesy of the Austin Sun
Sam Yeates is an American original. He grew up on a farm 16 miles outside of Stephenville, Texas. In that part of north/central Texas there wasn't much in the way of exposure to the arts. That is, if you don't count the occasional feed store calendar and a lot of good country music. However, the long, flat and empty Texas landscape offered Sam a blank canvas for his mind while the endless sky and magnificent ever-changing cloud formations fueled his imagination and dreams.
He has had, or been part of, many exhibits and gallery shows. Over the years, he has become a mainstay at a number of art galleries around the country. They are the Cohen Rese Gallery in San Francisco, Dos Lunas Gallery in Taos, New Mexico, and Davis Gallery in Austin. His art is part of the permanent collections of the Lone Star, Budweiser and Heileman Brewing Companies; North East Missouri State University; the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center at the University of Texas; Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C.; Hills, Field and Bartlett, Austin, Texas; Corpus Christi Art Museum, Corpus Christi, Texas; and Sky Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as others.
“To me, a painting is like a play unfolding on a stage. The artist conveys a personal world created from his imagination, memories and past experiences. In my work, this theatrical analogy applies. It is for the most part narrative, and much of this imagery is a result of growing up on a farm in north central Texas.
The open landscapes seen from a porch at twilight, or the still water of a swimming pool reflecting the sky at dusk, are drawn from my memories of youth and help set the mood for many of my paintings. Other elements such as cats stalking birds around the barns, and horses standing quietly in the evening, have also found their way into my work. Country roads, paved and gravel, play a part as well. For young people in rural Texas, many mysteries of life are experienced for the first time in the quiet loneliness of country roads. These same roads are also the paths to adventure and discovery. I first learned to dance in the lights of a car on a gravel road with the music from the radio.
In The Witching Hour series, these vistas of late evening and distant roads are combined with winged women. In these paintings, the women are less angelic and more the initiators into life’s mysteries. The car lights in the distance lend a sense of mystery while presenting the question of who is in the car, and where are they going, in this journey through life.
Another element that has had a constant presence in my work are wings. I have always had a fascination with what wings represent. In my youth I had dreams that I could miraculously fly, only to wake and find myself still bound to this world. I believe wings represent freedom, escape and the wish we all have to transcend this existence. Whether in the playful imagery of winged cats in the No Birds Would Sing If Cats Had Wings paintings, or breaking the two-dimensional barrier of the picture plane in the more classical themed Orpheus, Icarus and Muse series, wings have played a large part in my work.”...Thanks to Dan Hubig
For questions involving price and availability, please send Sam a message.