Phil Garrett is a painter, master printmaker, and influential figure in contemporary Southern printmaking whose work explores the natural world through expressive, layered, and deeply intuitive imagery. Working across painting, monotype, and other printmaking processes, Garrett creates atmospheric works that reflect his lifelong fascination with nature, myth, rhythm, and the mysterious forces that shape the visible world.

Garrett studied at the San Francisco Art Institute after spending time in Hawaii with renowned printmaker Gabor Peterdi. Drawn to the Bay Area’s dynamic art scene of the 1970s, he developed his artistic voice during a period marked by experimentation, cross-disciplinary influence, and a deep respect for process. Artists such as Wayne Thiebaud and David Ireland helped shape his awareness of material, surface, and visual structure, while jazz and blues became equally important influences in his studio practice. That musical sensibility can be felt throughout Garrett’s work, where improvisation, gesture, rhythm, and restraint move together across the surface.

As both an artist and printmaker, Phil Garrett is known for his ability to balance spontaneity with technical mastery. His paintings and monotypes often evoke storms, animals, plants, elemental energy, and imagined landscapes. Rather than rendering nature literally, Garrett approaches the natural world as a symbolic and spiritual force. His imagery suggests movement, transformation, and mythic presence, inviting viewers into a space where beauty, grace, ferocity, and mystery coexist.

Garrett has collaborated with several notable print studios throughout his career, including Winstone Press and Art Thomas Print Studio. In 1998, he founded King Snake Press in Greenville, South Carolina, an important printmaking studio dedicated to publishing monotypes and supporting artists across the region. Over nearly two decades, King Snake Press became a meaningful creative resource for Southern artists, helping expand the visibility and legacy of contemporary printmaking in the Southeast. Garrett’s collection of King Snake Press monotypes was later gifted to the Morris Museum of Art, further preserving the studio’s contribution to Southern art history.

Since 2018, Garrett has worked with Hand Graphics in Santa Fe, New Mexico, continuing his engagement with monotype and collaborative printmaking. In 2023, he participated in the Santa Fe Monothon, further connecting his practice to a broader national conversation around contemporary printmaking and works on paper.

Now based in the Landrum and Tryon area of North Carolina, Phil Garrett continues to create work that is both grounded in the landscape and expansive in spirit. His art reflects a sustained search for what he describes as the “mystery within the subject” and within himself. Through painting and monotype, Garrett explores a kind of mythical nature, one shaped by the power of storms, the spiritual quality of the elements, and the beauty and ferocity of plants and animals.

Phil Garrett’s work speaks to collectors, curators, and art lovers interested in contemporary painting, monotype printmaking, Southern artists, nature-inspired art, and expressive works on paper. His practice is rooted in craft, intuition, and reverence for the unknown, positioning him as a significant voice in contemporary printmaking and painting in the Southeast.