Alden “Trevor” McWilliams (b. 1982, Sharon, CT) grew up as a faculty child on the Millbrook School campus, in Millbrook, New York, in the heart of the pastoral Mid-Hudson Valley. Trevor didn’t have to look far for inspiration and artistic influences as a child; his grandfather was as an award winning illustrator, while his father taught photography, drawing and print-making for more than 40 years. Trevor’s love for the visual arts was solidified on field trips to New York’s museums, viewing atmospheric Hudson River School masterpieces in person, and studying drawing and painting under Millbrook School’s longtime Art Director, painter, and ever-present mentor, Bill Hardy, from 1997-2001.  

After studying English and Art at Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, Trevor worked at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts, as a member of the English department from 2005-2008.  In search of experience beyond academia, Trevor traveled extensively before settling in Portland, Oregon, in 2009. Through the experiences serving as field technician for Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, Trevor engaged firsthand with the region’s mystifying landscape. His work for OSU in particular showed him a side of the Cascade Mountains that many never see, which directly influenced his artistic focus.   

Following 13 transformative years in Oregon, Trevor decided it was time to return to his roots and recently relocated back home to the Hudson Valley.  Trevor currently draws, paints and photographs from life throughout wilderness regions of New York, New England and the American West, then develops larger concepts on canvas and paper in his Beacon, New York studio while working on commercial and private commissions. 

Statement

The dramatic power emanating from light and shadow cast across sweeps of land and water amplifies vibrations within my mind, heart, and hand long after a moment’s release.  My work is about harnessing the indescribable essence of place, transformative moments within a new or familiar space, and the poignant charge felt in the wake of Nature’s awe. My drawings and paintings invite the viewer into the mysterious mosaic to examine the muscle, rhythm, and flow both seen and felt within landscapes and skies far grander than my own imagination.  

Whenever possible, I physically, visually, and emotionally immerse myself in a place before I attempt to capture its essence on paper or canvas. Since 2009, I have explored, photographed, and rendered pockets of wilderness within the Pacific Northwest and beyond that stirred my very core—at first sight, and long after I departed. I record these raw impressions in order to create a dialogue with the place itself that can continue after we part. I watch wild swaths of the land breathe long and deep as the sun’s light slowly shifts from first to last. I wait for a moment, or a moment finds me, and when we commune, I feel a shift deep within myself; this is where my work begins.