Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Larry Forgard is a prolific artist who categorizes his work as “reality based abstraction.” Forgard studied at the renowned Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1960s followed by spell at the American Academy of Art in the same city. After he graduated, he worked as an art director and a graphic designer, applying his education and personal talent to a successful career. Forgard later became a college instructor at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. He has been teaching and conducting workshops in North Carolina since 1985, in addition to giving television interviews and discussing his experience of the creative process and encouraging others to take that journey. His lectures and courses are well-received, as is his art, which has been displayed in dozens of group, juried, and solo exhibitions over the years. Forgard has also earned a number of awards and his paintings can be found in private collections across the country.

There is a reason Forgard’s artistic style has received so much positive attention. Complex and skillful, his paintings have unique and interesting approaches to composition and form and he has the talent to successfully blend figurative, abstract, and realistic art styles. He is also known for his use of light and show, creating a “glow” in his paintings. He explains that this is created by “lifting paint from the surface creates an internal light source that becomes a strong element in communicating depth and mood.”

In both his urban scenes and his figurative work, the depth and mood of the paintings are a crucial part of the viewer’s experience; by selecting precise colors and using variations of light, color, and time of day, he is able to create endless, varied moods in what appear to be similar scenes. Often using non-traditional colors in his urban landscapes, Forgard cites the influence of Wolf Kahn for this choice. He describes his work in figures as “a study in ‘us,’” explaining that watching figures moving in and around each other brings then “part of all and all of one.” Combined with his complex skills and undeniable talent, it is this sort of insight that makes Larry Forgard’s artwork so remarkable.