Born and raised in Sylva, NC, James Daniel Horstman creates work deeply shaped by the region’s natural beauty and urban textures. His grandmother, Mary Jane Ellsworth, was a professional painter and advertisement cartoonist for NBC, and introduced him to the fine arts at a young age, sparking a lifelong study of art history.
He began producing his own visual works in 2021, drawing on that foundation and an independently funded residency in New York City, where he immersed himself in galleries and museums. Working primarily in pastels, graphite, and ink, he uses both the bold application of pure color and the deliberate absence of it to evoke sensation. His work blends realism and planar abstraction, guided by gesture and composition.
He coined the term Appalachian Expressionism to define the sense of place and influence that is central to his practice. Now working as a self-taught professional artist, he sells his work throughout Western North Carolina.