"The combination of a long dance between memory and imagination is the root from which my images grow."

Max Hayslette takes you to other times and places through his images. Experience a silent dawn, a brilliant afternoon, or the evening stillness of the very air he paints.

In the style of Asian masters, Mr. Hayslette distills the essence of a scene into flat light and dark areas with pure washes of color; then, he builds depth using a more European impressionist style. Broad brushstrokes define each plane as another world emerges on the canvas. Often, late afternoon or early evening light drenches ancient buildings with light and color. The weathered stone, vivid water and densely green trees exist in a serene tranquility. Travel the far reaches of the world through the eyes of Max Hayslette, where an image tells a story, evokes a memory, and inspires the heart.

Born in Rupert, West Virginia, Max Hayslette is a classically trained artist. He completed his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1952, where he studied very closely with Alexander Archipenko and Egon Weiner.

A world-renowned landscape artist, Mr. Hayslette's work reflects a gentle and spiritual quality. His intensely warm color palette and sense of dramatic lighting transports the viewer to familiar, at times surreal, destinations.

Mr. Hayslette likes to work on-site for his paintings whenever possible. He takes photos, renders sketches and creates color notes. He takes particular care in recording atmospheric color temperatures. Mr. Hayslette feels that different areas of the world have very distinct color temperatures.

His quest to see the landscape as a flat composition of light and dark stems from his love of Asian woodcuts. Mr. Hayslette believes that the Asian artist is able to reduce a subject to its simplest abstract form. His strongest attribute as a painter is his ability to see the abstract in his subject. The skeleton of each of his paintings is black and white, two-dimensional abstracts. This gives him the composition, the weights and balances on which he later hangs the more traditional elements of the subject. After the composition is formed and the painting divided into its planes, foreground, middleground and background, than a color palette is considered that will further enhance the storytelling of the painting.

Mr. Hayslette lists Franz Kline and Richard Diebenkorn as two artists he admires. The artist also studied and admired great works of Asian masters in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Kyoto. The artist has been greatly influenced by these travels.

Max Hayslette is represented in over 300 private, corporate, and public collections, most notably The Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford University, Wells Fargo Bank, IBM, and The Ford Motor Company.

An abridged list of his exhibitions includes Art Institute of Chicago, Seattle Art Museum, The Feragil Gallery of New York City, The Findlay Gallery of Chicago, Christopher Clark Gallery of San Francisco, Kenneth Behm Galleries of Seattle, Hanson Gallery of Carmel, Dick Kleinman Fine Arts of Cleveland, and Bev's Fine Art of North Carolina.