Seth Haverkamp speaks with me from a picturesque, wooded property in North Carolina. It is Saturday night, but the sun is yet to set. The northern hemisphere's summer solstice is just one week away, and the days have been feeling longer lately. “Life sometimes gives you bigger waves to ride than you want” he quips philosophically. For now though, the sun settles, affording glimpses over Seth's shoulder of a peaceful woodland environment, as he settles into his Saturday evening and a high-backed timber chair for our interview.

The 44-year-old painter calls Philadelphia home, having grown up in upstate New York and having lived in West Virginia and Tennessee at different times. Seth is counting down to spending some quality time with his son, staying in the cabin on the small island his family owns on a lake in Canada. The island has been in his family since 1964 and is about the size of a football field. Growing up, Seth would stay there all summer. He has nostalgic memories, describing those times as "golden years" and the "one constant" in his childhood. “It probably sounds more romantic than it is. It's a tiny island. There's just a one-room cabin with a porch, surrounded by trees and mosquitoes. It’s not insulated. But it is like heaven on Earth.”

These are locations where it is easy to picture Seth laying on his back, gazing into the cosmos that so often stars in his paintings.

Like the starlight in his paintings, Seth’s approach to painting has come a long way. While many artists say that art was the only endeavour they were ever good at while growing up, Seth is more pointed in his choice of words. "Art was the only thing that I ever had potential to be good at, but I wasn’t good at it yet". Seth is ambivalent about his initial, formal art education. "It was a bit of a joke. It's hard not to be negative. When you're 18, you want skills – and not just how to draw an ellipse." His life changed after enrolling in Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, the art school founded by renowned artist Nelson Shanks, who Seth reveres. Seth vividly recalls attending a figure painting demonstration by Nelson. "This new school blew my mind. I was floored. He did a whole figure painting in literally five minutes. It was fully developed and it was substantial. I watched as he furiously attacked the canvas with brown paint and a brush. I had never seen anything like it. It was incredible. That was when everything clicked for me. It was revolutionary."

An exerpt from an article written by Luke W. Barrett and published in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine issue 50.

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