In living color
This story was featured in the March 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
One thing a viewer can expect from a John Jaster work is brilliant color. Old-fashioned gas pumps are a fiery red. Carousel horses are portrayed in bold oranges, blues, and yellows. Where most people might see a dull, gray landscape, Jaster sees color. Take his painting LA COMMUTE, which depicts a Los Angeles freeway with multiple lanes of traffic and cars lined up one after another. Jaster chooses to depict the city’s notorious freeways in a hot yellow-orange that evokes energy and life. And he captures the rainbow of car colors in a way that imparts a playful sensibility to an experience Angelinos dread. “Having spent a lot of time in L.A. traffic, I wanted to capture the feeling and intensity of it,” Jaster says. “To most people it would seem to be a colorless and boring experience, but hundreds of loud, hot cars stampeding into downtown L.A. while reflecting the brilliant Southern California sunshine is a circus act not easily forgotten. There is color everywhere.”
Jaster has won a number of awards recently, including one in a Bold Brush Competition last year. He currently splits his time between California and Ohio, where he works as a software architect. Many of his park and river paintings are inspired by scenes in Ohio. For example, FOUNTAIN FROLIC, which is currently hanging in the Ohio Governor’s office in Columbus, is inspired by a warm, sunny day in July at Riverscape Metropark in downtown Dayton. The intricate piece is a vibrant slice of life capturing summer in the city. The clothing of the various figures is portrayed with Jaster’s trademark dashes of colorful shapes. “I like to use splashes of impressionistic color to create puzzle pieces to catch the eye,” he says. “What I particularly liked about the children playing in the fountains was how the water sculptures partitioned each set of figures into their own mini-drama.”
When asked what he wants to convey in a painting he replies simply: “A moment in time. Brilliant color that evokes an emotion, that acts as a musical score to the eyes.” —Bonnie Gangelhoff
representation
www.johnjasterstudio.com
Featured in the March 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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