Timothy McDowell takes inspiration from the infinite aspects of nature, taking claim to the micro and the macro, the metaphysical and the phenomenal, to define a sense of location in a desire to connect to the viewer's memory of place. His compositions are masterworks of seeming chaos, wherein the arrangement of form and space engages the viewer physically as he participates in the spatial and physical relationships between all the elements in the painting. The underlying message is a reminder that all things in nature are intimately related, and serve a single purpose, no matter how random and independent they may seem.

McDowell's works make a kind of referential survey of influences. Taking from a wide range of pictorial traditions and botanical imagery, McDowell maintains no boundary when connecting gleaned elements from such sources as Asian brush paintings, Tibetan iconography or 19th Century American landscape painting. All is redefined in luminous layers of richly pigmented beeswax, which provides a faint aroma of honey, possibly making it the most appropriate medium for the painting of Nature. Recognized as a virtuoso in the medium of encaustic painting, Timothy McDowell wrings every last ounce of effect from this medium, known for centuries for its transformative qualities of luminosity and elasticity.

Timothy McDowell exhibits across the United States and internationally in galleries, museums and biennials, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (FL), the Phoenix Museum of Art (Phoenix, Arizona), the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Virginia), the 5th Cuenca Biennial of Painting (Cuenca, Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador) and the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea (Florence, Italy). His work is in numerous private, corporate and museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art Prints and Drawings Collection, NY. Timothy McDowell resides in West Mystic, Connecticut, and has been an instructor at Connecticut College since 1981.