Ned Cowan has been a psychiatrist
in Los Angeles for over thirty- five years. His love of art began when
he took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago when he was a child.
Art has always been an
important part of Cowan's life. It is his truest form of expression. By
the very nature of his profession, he has always been interested in what
inspires art. What is the artist saying in his work and what is the mental
process that accompanies it?
Cowan's psychiatric practice
allows him to be acutely aware of the emotions and feelings of people
in everyday situations. His two worlds, Art and Psychiatry, collide and
collaborate to form a special relationship . This has resulted in his
unique style of representational art that has been refined over the years.
His influences stem from
his medical training and a foreign fellowship to a remote region of Africa,
then Tanganyika (Tanzania). It was during this time when Cowan was exposed
to the art of his Leper patients and their primitive yet deep perspective
on life. Cowan was also influenced by his sponsoring Bishop who was part
of the anti- apartheid movement and close friends with both Bishop Desmond
Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Cowan's art influences range from Renaissance
painters to Impressionists and Modernists.
Cowan continues to create
and capture on canvas complexities of people in states of repose, personal
reflection and interaction illuminating their attitudes, desires and expectations.