Background
Dewey Mims was born on April 28, 1954, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States, into the family of Dewey Sexton Junior and Bobbie Ann (Stallings) Mims.
Dewey Mims was born on April 28, 1954, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States, into the family of Dewey Sexton Junior and Bobbie Ann (Stallings) Mims.
Mims attended the Rhode Island School of Design in 1973 and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1976. That same year he received a Greenshields Foundation grant to support independent study in the museums of England, France, and Italy and in 1981 returned to Florence where he studied with the American painter Benjamin F. Long.
In 1976, Mims received a Greenshields Foundation grant to copy masterworks in museums in England, France, and Italy. For over a decade, he maintained studios in Italy and the US, during which time he executed both easel and public mural paintings. In recognition for his work in traditional fresco painting Classical America presented Mims with an Arthur Ross Award in 1984 for ‘excellence and integrity in the application of classical ideals.’ He was also awarded an Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 2009 from The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art.
D. Jeffrey Mims is a founder and director of the Academy of Classical Design, a school of fine art with an emphasis on traditional mural painting and architectural decoration. The Academy serves as the educational branch of The Classical Design Foundation, a US based non-profit which was established for the preservation and practice of classical design in the public realm. Mims has lectured on historic collaborations between artists and architects for, among other organizations, the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and the University of Notre Dame. He is currently working on the creation of a Mural Guild to promote the integration of the allied arts in traditional architectural settings.
Dewey Jeffrey Mims adheres to the artistic traditions of Classical Realism.
