Craig Crawford

I was born in 1964 in Sacramento California. My father, a research meteorologist studying nuclear winter, was offered a job in AIken SC at the Savannah River Site. In 1972 we left Livermore California and drove across the country arriving in Aiken SC at the end of the summer. I was eight years old and the arrival made a lasting impression on me psychologically. Since that time I have been observing southern culture and grappled with how to interpret it. Poverty, race relations, religion, and the brutal history of the south combined with a beautiful and compelling landscape, this has been at the forefront of my thoughts. I grew up drawing and painting and attended the first class at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts housed at Furman University. I then ended up going to both Young Harris College in Georgia and the University of South Carolina where I graduated with a BFA. After college I felt as though I had not learned enough about how paintings were made. I wanted to learn more about materials and techniques in order to express myself more accurately through making paintings. In 1989 I was offered an apprenticeship in the study of painting conservation with Olin Conservation, inc. in Washington DC. Over the eight years studying paintings in the studio that were in need of conservation treatments I developed an eye for a particular aesthetic. That aesthetic is present in my paintings. The time studying painting conservation was invaluable to my understanding of American painting as it pertains to techniques, aesthetics, and subject matter. In 1999 I moved back to SC and started my own private painting conservation practice, Crawford Conservation Inc, where I have primarily treated paintings for museums, private collectors, and universities. I now have studios in both SC and New Orleans. Notable projects as a conservator include the treatment of Thomas Sully’s copy of Gilbert Stuart’s Lansdowne portrait of George Washington for the North Carolina State Capitol, portrait by Francois Fleishbein titled “ Free Woman of Color” for the Historic New Orleans Collection, “Belizare” attributed to Jacques Amans for a private client where I was featured in a short New York Times documentary titled “Belizaire and the Frey Children”. I also was involved in the conservation of ceiling paintings that are part of the Brumidi Corridors at the US Capitol in Washington DC. 

Through the years I have continued to paint and in the early 2000’s had numerous solo shows of my landscape paintings at Carolina Galleries in Charleston SC, Shain Fine Art Charlotte NC, Anderson Fine Art St Simons Island Ga, and at Wofford College in Spartanburg SC. The paintings were primarily traditional oil paintings on canvas and wooden panels. After the 2008 recession I pulled out of the galleries that represented me and began to change my focus towards painting my surroundings now living in rural SC, with a narrative coming from what I’ve witnessed living there. The paintings have taken longer to complete, slowing my output. Since that time I have had two solo shows at the Greenville County Museum of Art, a solo show at the Campbell House Southern Pines NC, a solo show at the Sumter Gallery of Art, and inclusion in the show titled Nature/Nurture in Lake City SC, and a solo show at Hines Community College in Jackson Mississippi. I was recently included in the book titled “At This Moment” Portraits of South Carolina Arts by Jerry Siegel. I have been collected by numerous private individuals and the Greenville County Museum of Art.