Corey Enos

Artist Statement

For most of my life, I believed my relationship with art had ended in high school. Aside from two informal painting classes that I barely remember and the occasional doodle in the margins of a notebook, I stopped creating altogether. Life moved in different directions. I attended college before deciding it wasn't the right path for me, joined the U.S. Army, and deployed to Afghanistan. After returning home, I met my wife, and together we built a family with our two beautiful daughters. Over the years we moved throughout the East Coast before eventually settling in Georgia.

The constant changes were difficult for my children, and in 2025 I started what we called "Family Art Days." The idea was simple: set aside the stress of everyday life and spend time creating something that made us happy. I had no expectations beyond sharing an experience with my family. I certainly didn't expect it to reignite a passion I had abandoned decades earlier.

My first painting was a portrait of my wife. Looking back, it was technically poor, but it became one of the most important paintings I have ever made because it reminded me that improvement only comes from trying. Instead of giving up, I watched a few instructional videos, experimented with different materials, and found myself drawn to oil painting over acrylics.

My next work, Smile, was my first serious portrait, painted from a photograph of my eldest daughter. It was completed entirely freehand using only red, blue, yellow, and white. Restricting my palette forced me to learn how to truly see color rather than rely on convenience. My second completed portrait, Ballerina Dream, depicts my youngest daughter. While creating it, I began experimenting with techniques such as a burnt umber underpainting before building the final layers of color. I am still learning, and I often don't know the proper names for everything I do. My process is driven more by observation, experimentation, and persistence than by formal training.

I have no traditional fine arts education and very little technical vocabulary to describe my work. Everything I know has come through practice, study, and the willingness to make mistakes. Every painting teaches me something new, and every finished piece represents another step in a journey that is only beginning.

My greatest hope in sharing my work is not simply that viewers appreciate the finished paintings, but that someone who has convinced themselves they are "too late" to pursue something creative sees a different possibility. I didn't return to painting until I was 36 years old. If my work encourages even one person to pick up a brush, revisit a forgotten passion, or believe they are capable of learning something new, then these paintings have accomplished far more than I ever imagined.

This body of work marks the beginning of my artistic journey rather than its destination. It represents family, resilience, curiosity, and the belief that creativity has no age limit. Every portrait I paint is both a celebration of the people I love and a reminder that it is never too late to begin again.