Background
Blair, Carl Raymond was born on November 28, 1932 in Atchinson, Kansas, United States. Son of Floyd John and Sarah Julianna (Severson) Blair.
Blair, Carl Raymond was born on November 28, 1932 in Atchinson, Kansas, United States. Son of Floyd John and Sarah Julianna (Severson) Blair.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, U. Kansas, 1950-1953, 55-56; Master of Fine Arts, Kansas City The Art Institute of Chicago, 1957.
A native of Atchison, Kansas, Blair earned a Bachelor of Arts in art at the University of Kansas and a Master of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute. His exhibitions include the Art in Embassies Program. Ringling Museum of Artist
Morris Museum, Augusta, Georgia.
And the Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee In 1995, the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, South Carolina (U.S.), hosted a major retrospective of his work.
In 2000, a 40-year retrospective show was held at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia. Blair refers to his style as “neither realistic nor abstract.
I refer to my work as visual poetry.” Although best known for his oil, gouache, and acrylic paintings, late in his career, Blair began exhibiting sculpture, especially whimsical animals crafted of plywood or spruce pine boards.
He recalled telling his BJU students to "never, never grow up and take yourself seriously."
Curiously, Blair did not discover that he was color-blind until he was an art student at the University of Kansas. Asked to do a self-portrait, he painted himself green. Although he once called his color-blindness an asset because he was “not hindered by color combinations,”.
In addition to his teaching at BJU, he also served on the art faculty at KCAI summer programs and as a member of the cooperating faculty at the Greenville County Museum of Artist Blair was a member of the South Carolina Arts Commission for twelve years and also served as chairman of the commission for two years. In 1970, he and two other members of the Bob Jones University art faculty, Emery Bopp and Darell Koons, founded Hampton III Gallery, one of the first commercial galleries in Upstate South Carolina.
Married Margaret Elaine Ruble, June 14, 1957. 1 child, Ruth Elaine.