Show Preview | Jeff Jamison - Southwest Art Magazine

Carmel, CA
Jones & Terwilliger Galleries, July 1-31

Jeff Jamison, Out of the Ordinary, oil, 30 x 30.

This story was featured in the July 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

This month Jones & Terwilliger Galleries honors the fresh, inimitable style of award-winning oil painter Jeff Jamison in a special exhibition of his work at the gallery’s Carmel, CA, location. Among the 20 or so new oil paintings on view throughout July, visitors can find Jamison’s timeless, dreamlike interpretations of city streets, ocean-side settings, and café and bar interiors. “Jeff has a style that is distinctively his own,” says gallery co-owner Patricia Terwilliger. “He doesn’t remind me of anyone else. We’ve placed his work in very traditional homes and in very modern homes with abstract art.”

Until about eight years ago, Jamison painted in the more exacting tradition of Joaquín Sorolla, John Singer Sargent, and other old masters. Back then, every brush stroke mattered, he says. “I got to a point where I felt like I was adequate, but at the same time I thought, ‘You’re never going to paint like Sargent.’ I decided to focus on what I know and just have fun.”

: Jeff Jamison, A Summer Place, oil, 24 x 24.

: Jeff Jamison, London Calls Again, oil, 24 x 24.

: Jeff Jamison, Afternoon Mosaic, oil, 24 x 30.

That’s when Jamison came into his own, says Terwilliger.

Today, in a style akin to contemporary impressionism, Jamison suggests rather than describes every detail in his brushwork, even when portraying architecture and figures. “I still want to leave the traditional painter in the painting,” he notes. “I’m trying to walk that line between a contemporary feeling and an Old World look.” Jamison also abandoned his formerly dark palette and now works in a lighter value range that produces bright, airy atmospheres. Indeed, warmth and light permeate his works in the exhibition, and the beach scenes he has been painting more frequently are a telltale sign of his love for warm, sunny places. “If I paint a cold painting, it will make me cold,” says the artist, who splits his time between Murfreesboro, TN, and Folly Beach, SC. “I paint what I want to see.”

: Jeff Jamison, A Lovable Rogue, oil, 30 x 24.

: Jeff Jamison, Ocean Side, oil, 20 x 16.

In fact, Jamison invents nearly all the scenes he paints, and he skirts specific place names in favor of vague, poetic titles. His hope is that, by retaining an air of mystery, he helps viewers find their own familiar places in his paintings. “I believe there’s a song playing in everybody’s head,” he says, “and it’s just a matter of figuring out what that is.” —Kim Agricola

contact information
888.278.0040
www.jones-terwilliger-galleries.com