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 did not have to look far for inspiration and artistic influences as a child; his grandfather, Alden “Mac” McWilliams, was a professional illustrator, while his father, Rick McWilliams, 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’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’s teaching and coaching faculty from 2005-2008. In search of experiences and excitement beyond academia, Trevor traveled throughout parts of Europe, Southeast Asia, and the vast majority of the lower 48 United States for the better part of 2008 before settling in Portland, Oregon, in 2009. Through the experiences of working “harvest season” at Willamette Valley vineyards and 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.   

After Trevor committed to painting landscapes, a local Millbrook painter and dear family friend, Peter Corbin, generously opened his studio door for a traditional oil painting apprenticeship in the winter of 2011 that continued intermittently over the next ten years. When in Oregon, the Cascade mountains, Columbia River Gorge, rugged Pacific coastline, and unrivaled natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest are the primary subjects for his rapidly growing body of work. Trevor currently draws, paints, and photographs from life throughout wilderness regions of the American West, New York’s Hudson Valley and New England, then develops larger concepts on canvas back in his 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.