By Bonnie Gangelhoff
After a boyhood spent outdoors, fishing the mountain streams and exploring the Rocky Mountain foothills near his home in Evergreen, CO, Jay Moore studied art and then worked as a graphic designer and illustrator—work that kept him inside. But his heart remained in the wild outdoors. So it took no more than a weeklong plein-air painting workshop to nudge him into a career correction, becoming a fine-art landscape painter of the great American West. Moore’s paintings, for which he provides a GPS notation of the scene’s location, are in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections.
Has your style or approach to your art changed since you first appeared in Southwest Art? I still go out and paint studies on location and bring them back to develop large studio paintings. These days I’m focused on slowing down, doing more research and planning, and trying to get the quintessential painting that will stand the test of time.
What is your proudest accomplishment so far? Having a painting in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum.
Would you have done anything differently? Early on in my career I did a lot of commissions. It paid the bills and was good practice, but it was not the best for exposure.
What advice do you give to artists just starting out in their careers? Work very hard. Use technology to your advantage. Have all your marketing efforts funnel to a quality website. And keep life in balance.
What motto do you live by? In art, my motto is: “Essence before detail.”
What artists have influenced you? The Russian Itinerants—Ivan Shishkin, Isaac Levitan, and Arkhip Kuindzhi. I also like American artists Willard Metcalf, John Frederick Kensett, and Frederic Church.
What are you working on now? I painted the Lower Yellowstone Falls at Yellowstone National Park from several angles and now am in the process of deciding which angle to develop into a large studio painting.
What’s your next big goal? Just to focus on the quality of each painting. The rest will take care of itself.
REPRESENTATION
Saks Galleries, Denver, CO; Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, and Jackson, WY; Wild Horse Gallery, Steamboat Springs, CO; Keating Fine Art, Basalt, CO; www.jaymoorestudio.com.
UPCOMING SHOWS
Holiday Small Works Show, Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, December 3-31.
Celebrations Invitational Show, InSight Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX, December 4-21.
Small Gems group show, Saks Galleries, Denver, CO, December 11-31.
First appearance in Southwest Art: Profile, February 2003
Show participation since then: The Quest for the West Art Show and Sale at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.
Price change since then: In 2003 the price of a 30-by-40 was $7,200. Today that size painting is about $13,000.
Featured in “Success Stories” in December 2009