Born in 1982, an only child, Bryan Michael McCormick was raised in Jeannette Pennsylvania. He busied himself by drawing and creating with his hands. His interest in art began at a young age, while reading Calvin and Hobbes comics, which he would meticulously copy.
After becoming a wheelchair user, following a skiing accident, in 2001, Bryan vowed to always pursue his dreams. Soon after his injury, he started practicing figure drawing, which he had always wanted to master. Then he made a commitment to challenge his abilities by attending figure drawing sessions at Carnegie Mellon University. Today he continues to attend figure sessions throughout Pittsburgh to maintain a practice of lifelong learning.
Drawing was followed by painting, and in 2011 Bryan began studying watercolors. Oil painting came soon after that.
Bryan learned to paint by painting every single day and by studying the design and composition of old masters. A proud member of the Carnegie Museum of Art, he makes regular visits and meticulously studies composition and paint application, creating small paintings and sketches on site. He also spends countless hours studying books on art at the library, creating innumerable sketches to master design and composition.
Some of his favorite painters to study include Peter Ilstead, Isaac Levitan, Wilhelm Hammershoi, Casper David Friedrich, Walter Sickert, Ivan Pokhitonov, and Penleigh Boyd.
Bryan primarily paints with the Zorn palette, a limited color palette, which results in low chroma paintings focusing primarily on light, value, and composition. The result is paintings full of color harmony and strong value contrasts.
Bryan continues to paint and draw every single day—painting with oils first thing in the morning, sketching in line for groceries, sketching meals, and painting watercolors into the early hours of the morning.
Bryan loves to share the knowledge he has gleaned from thousands of hours of painting and drawing by teaching private lessons in his home studio.
Bryan is a juried member of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists (PSA) and Pittsburgh Watercolor Society (PWS). He has participated in a number of juried group shows with the PSA and PWS, and he was awarded an honorable mention at the 2022 quick draw competition at Plein air Easton, the largest and most esteemed outdoor painting competition in the United States.