BIOGRAPHY
Albert was born in New York City on December 15, 1931. As a child, he lived in Floral Park, a suburban town on New York’s Long Island. He showed an early talent in art, and a creative interest in the beauty of the landscape around him.
Albert studied art at University of New York Farmingdale and the NYC School of Visual Arts, and received a degree in Advertising Art & Design in 1951.
Soon after, he travelled through Europe as an US Army corporal, using his artistic eye as an official photographer for the army.
Returning home to New York, he married and settled down, beginning a family life in Deer Park, NY, and his career as a commercial artist.
Albert eventually established an advertising business in NY City, partnering with two other artists.
As he was commuting to work from the suburbs, he spent his time creating oil paintings at home. Throughout the early 1960s, Albert entered his work into shows, and exhibited at the Greenwich Village outdoor show each year. He was approached by gallery owners and art dealers.
In 1966, requests from collectors and galleries for more of his work inspired him to leave advertising and devote himself to creating paintings full-time . He considered himself a self-taught artist.
" I am a self-taught painter. I did not want to be influenced by other artists. This I believe is the only way to achieve successes in the art world today. You must develop a distinct style and stick to it."
He developed his unique style during the 1970s, and his career was established through many one-man shows in galleries across the United States.
He continued to live on Long Island, moving to West Islip and closer to the shoreline.
Albert visited favorite spots on Long Island, sketching and taking photos to bring back to his studio. His love of the Great South Bay and the seashore kept him inspired for decades. He also travelled the east coast of the US and into the mountains of NY and Pennsylvania, finding little boat houses and old red barns.
“My idea of a perfect afternoon is to sit on a dock sketching a harbor scene or to follow a stone wall and discover a wonderful old farm on a snowy hillside. I use photos and sketches with color notations to keep the images fresh in my mind. I try to illustrate movement and action in my work. Using painting knives and lots of paint helps to achieve this.”
The visual drama and beautifully structured composition in his paintings attracted responses from collectors and critics across the US. Experimenting with sand added to the oil paint, Swayhoover went on to create landscapes that are vibrant and dimensional.
"Using knives, I can achieve painterly surfaces without fussiness of brush strokes. Colors stay vibrant and shapes stay crisp. Fine lines are easily achieved by using quick strokes with the edge of a painting knife. These tools give sharpness, exuberance and freedom to my work."
His best known paintings depict scenes of life at the shore, repairing sailboats, sunsets and rainy days. Or life on the farm, snow falling, and a ladder leaning on the wall.
Swayhoover's most iconic piece could be “Sand Path” – proving his mastery of Impressionism: capturing the color and light of nature in this beach scene, the composition beckoning the viewer to wander up the path.
Some of his work has been reproduced as art prints, now being sold across America and Europe.
He was the recipient of over 25 awards, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Award given by the Salmagundi Club. He had over 40 successful one-man shows in leading galleries on the east coast. His paintings hang in important private collections as well as the corporate collections of IBM, Chase Manhattan, Pfizer, CBS and others.
By the 1990s, Swayhoover moved to Daytona Beach, never leaving the seashore he loved and which inspired his art. He continued to paint in his semi-retirement, incorporating some Florida scenes into his collection. He passed away at the age of 86.