About the Artist

Joe Craighead (b. 1981, Miami, Florida) is an American landscape painter based in upstate South Carolina. Raised in New Orleans, his early exposure to his grandmother’s paintings—depicting scenes from Cuba sparked a lifelong engagement with art and place. After a career as a chef, Craighead turned his focus fully to painting, bringing with him a disciplined, intuitive approach to the craft. Though largely self-taught, he has further refined his work through workshop study with contemporary painters including Joe Paquet Kimball Geisler, and Casey Baugh. Craighead works primarily in oil, with a practice rooted in plein air painting. For him, painting on location is both process and pursuit—a way of engaging directly with the land through sustained observation and experience. His work seeks to capture the shifting nuances of light, atmosphere, and form as they unfold in real time, translating the immediacy of the outdoors into compositions that are both responsive and enduring. Each painting reflects a lived moment, shaped by weather, time of day, and the artist’s physical presence within the landscape. Since relocating to upstate South Carolina, Craighead has focused on the distinct character of the Southeastern landscape, from the Blue Ridge foothills and mountain lakes of North Carolina to the quiet expanses of the Low country. His work conveys a sensitivity to place, grounded in observation and informed by a deepening connection to the environments he paints.

Exhibitions / Press / Recognition


2025

Shain Gallery Small works show 

Modern Impressionist Magazine Top 40 Nov/Dec 2025 Juror Kimball Geisler

Artist residency at The Reserve Lake Keowee 

Looking Up Exhibition First Presbyterian Galleries Greenville SC


2024

Talk Greenville Magazine November 2024

Modern Impressionist Magazine Top 20 July 2024 Juror Carl Bretzke

Modern Impressionism Magazine Top 20 March 2024 Juror Haidee Jo Summers

Plein Air Salon Top 100 Feb. 2024

TH Brennen Fine Art Scottsdale Az, 12x12 Juried Show Dec 2024

Thornback Gallery “Saturated” group exhibit Greenville SC 2024

Pickens County Museum Plein Air show 2024

AGGG Guest artist September, 2024

Blue Ridge Arts Annual Juried Exhibition 2024


2023

Artisphere Artist of the Upstate 2023

Oil Painters of America Summer Exhibition 2023

Artist Guild Gallery of Greenville / Guest Artist August 


2022

Redlands Festival of Arts 2022 SECOND PLACE 2D.

National Orange Show All California Juried Exhibition 2022