Adam Maxwell Townsend

Adam Maxwell Townsend is a painter, illustrator, writer and photographer. His art is informed by his 11 years as an investigative and breaking news journalist and illustrator at newspapers and web sites across the country. This experience has led Townsend to create deeply detailed narrative paintings and illustrations, both on a large scale and for print publication. The interplay of color and light on the human form is what fascinates him most, and his subjects are often depicted in the throes of performing a complex skill or action, like playing music or fighting. Townsend’s sly sense of humor is evident in many of his works. Townsend creates in a bold, illustrative style; each painting aims to create a storybook or chronicle without words, though he also plays with incorporating typography into his work. Townsend is a competent musician focusing on jazz and R&B keyboard/piano, harmonica, trumpet and the mandolin. He speaks Spanish, and is an amateur boxer, training at a gym in the neighborhood where he lives with his wife in San Clemente, California. He is currently busy with his art and design business and work editing articles for a consumer medical site with offices in town.