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 felt her way around the world, Jamie's early impact was established through an impressive number of touring, museum, and gallery shows. Her legacy developed as she moved to using oils and focusing on the inner meaning of her work.
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 that a photograph can't provide because there is no prolonged interaction"
Jamie Uses a carefully minimal range of oil paints which she mixes with additional oil to form a smoother consistency that lays down more like a saturated watercolor. Selecting her brushes in relationship to the drama she is seeking, Jamie sometimes paints with high quality house brushes that she has shaved down with a razor.
Jamie applies her paints to panel quickly and without hesitation, her inner sense of being guiding 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 lanscapes of George Innes…[Jamie's] paintings are fres traslations of nature's energy into visible form."
Statement
"My paintings are intended to be reminders of the stillness. The Earth often is still, and when I am ouside painting plein air the stillness connection lets me feel at one with everything. The joy and peace of those moments is what I hope to bring back to the viewer.
That still place within is often referred to as the 'Zone' where most creative people are when they are painting, sculpting, writing, or playing music. I try to quiet my mind and listen to the stillness of the land. There are no houses, cars, people or animals in my paintings as they would be a distraction that disrupts the stillness. Although I have often painted on the sides of busy highways, the highway is not in the painting.
Bells of consciousness are reminders that bring us back to looking at the world through the eyes of the soul. The Bells can be anything and everything. I pray that my paintings are Bells for someone."
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 Springfiled, 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.
