joel knapp
Gallatin, Tennessee
Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, “Bugg Hollow” in Cottontown, Tennessee is the place artist Joel Knapp called his creative home. There he taught workshops and painted the valleys, streams, and the ever changing Tennessee landscape around him.
Knapp began painting at a young age and enjoyed creating art all through his career as a dentist. Upon selling his practice and retiring, he was finally able to focus on his true passion…traveling the world and creating art from his experiences! Together with his wife, Karen, Knapp traveled throughout the country and abroad with easel, camera and paints; capturing all aspects of the landscapes, cityscapes and people they met. He was a painter in motion - restless to capture nature and the country in all its moods and seasons. An outstanding colorist, Knapp favored thick, juicy oils applied in a loosely impressionistic style. Primarily painting en plein air, he believed that you capture the spirit of a place by experiencing it directly.
Knapp said of plein air painting: “It’s such an honest approach to see the light as it hits the scene. The wind in your face, bugs in your paint and two hours to create a painting…you must paint fast and loose, go in with your feelings, but using your brain and experience to balance colors, to vibrate and sing Hallelujah!”
Dr. Joel Knapp passed from this world on September 22, 2020. He was a bright light in the Middle Tennessee artistic community and he will be greatly missed by his fellow artists, valued collectors, and his friends at All About Art.
