Jamie Young

Artist Info

Biography

Jamie began sketching at age four, sold her first painting at age twelve, and by age sixteen was placing in juried art shows. Inspired by her native Massachusetts landscape, Jamie's career continued as she explored various mediums while attending the University of Massachusetts. Painting in watercolor, ink, and pastel as she traveled she always returned to her first love, plein air oils. Jamie's early impact was established through an impressive number of touring, museum, and gallery shows. Her legacy developed as she taught landscape and figure drawing for twenty years in the Pioneer Valley.

Style

Jamie uses location sketches - often traveling through the backwoods to create these quick but powerful images - as the foundation for her oil work. For Jamie "each painting is a meditation. By sketching it, I have a direct involvement. A sketch is a way of being present because of the prolonged interaction" Jamie uses a minimal oil palette of the primary colors and three earth pigments which she mixes with additional oil to form a smoother consistency that lays down like butter. Selecting her brushes in relationship to the texture she is seeking, Jamie sometimes paints with high quality house brushes or smaller long artist brushes. Jamie applies her paints to panel quickly and without hesitation, her inner sense of being guides the urgency or the solidity of her brushwork. Peter Hastings, author of "Who's Who In American Art" writes that there is "a similar spiritual intimacy in the poetic landscapes of George Innes…[Jamie's] paintings are fresh translations of nature's energy into visible form."

Statement

"Roaming the hills of Western Massachusetts and farming keep me outside and painting year round. The thing that makes me stop and paint is the light, atmosphere and composition. That is what I sketch in pencil; colors and expressive brush strokes are emotional tools that finish the painting. I paint plein air for small pieces and work in the studio for large paintings. I love the purity of abstract and expressionist art and the Earth pulls me back to landscapes, so I try to walk the line between. The stillness of the Earth is something that we all see and have a need to be with. Painting and drawing are ways for me to meditate on the stillness and be more aware, centered, and energized. I try to pass it on in my paintings."

Honors

2009 - "The Last Snow Series" is exhibited at the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA with additional pieces at The Harrison Gallery 2009 - Chicago Art Center group show 2009 - Cultural Arts Center, Hardwick, MA 2009 - Gallery 454 Solo Exhibit 2006 - In response to her experience with cancer, Jamie founded a not-for-profit organization that selects meditative works of art that are reproduced for cancer patients in hopes of helping achieve peace and wellbeing. 2005 - Jamie was diagnosed with Leukemia and began chemotherapy. She chronicled her journey through a series of oils conveying her sense of fear, darkness, acceptance, and light. 2004 - Jamie was commissioned by Historic Deerfield to paint a 4 x 10 foot signature oil for their visitors' center. 2002 - Jamie fulfilled teaching engagements at the GVW Smith Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, MA; as well as the Guild Art Center in North Hampton, MA, The Studio School in Springfield, MA, The Hill Institute in Florence, MA, and The Conway School of Landscape Design in Conway, MA from 1984 -1999. 1989 - Jamie received a grant from the Massachusetts Arts Lottery to paint the Connecticut River. "The River Runs" series consisted of 46 oil paintings and 120 pastels. The series was then toured through 4 museums.

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