Abstract painter Provorse featured at CCAC

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Iowa City painter Jay Provose isn’t your typical artist, and he doesn’t create your typical art.

“Sometimes I’ll just see something, in the clouds or in the sky, and I see it as abstract and that’s how I paint it,” Provorse said. “It never ends up looking like a sunrise or sunset or the sky, it ends up as this crazy array of colors. That’s what’s kind of cool about abstract, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Provorse’s work is on display at the Charles City Arts Center in the month of July, and on Friday the CCAC held an in-person artist’s reception for him for the first time in 15 months.

“This is just great, it’s kind of an honor to be the first one back,” Provorse said. “I hope people can just come and have some fun looking at it.”

Originally from Sioux City, Provorse is a self-taught artist with little or no art background. He has lived in Colorado, where he was a ski instructor, and currently resides in Iowa City. When he’s not creating artwork, he and his wife flip houses. The couple has four children.

The painting started about eight years ago, when he was watching their kids while his wife was out of town and he just picked up a paintbrush, and he liked the results.

“It’s all pretty much heavy acrylic, I don’t use any water, and it’s all abstract,” Provorse said.

He has art on display throughout Iowa City, and this is his first exhibit in Charles City. Information about his work can be found online on his “Affordable Abstract Art” Facebook page.

Provorse also draws mazes.

“I’ve been able to draw mazes since I was a kid,” he said. “One time my wife asked me to draw her some mazes, and I just went crazy and drew about 10 poster-size mazes, and I’ve just kept doing that.”

All of his artwork on display at the CCAC this month is for sale, as is a bin full of his mazes.