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Now showing ongoingly at the APEX Gallery on Cookman Street in Asbury Park, NJ. Graduated Syracuse University with a BFA in Illustration, 1990
Before I share with you about who I am I want to acknowledge the opportunity it is to be working with my wife and life partner, Donna. Sharing this site and all that we are up to together in life. I'm clear it is not common for two people to share the same talents and interests as we do through the creative process. It has had these last few years of working more closely together be extraordinary. We look forward to bringing you many new views of the world we see and sharing them with you...be sure to visit Donna's photos while you are here.
I do both watercolor paintings and acrylic paintings. I've worked in every medium imaginable through the years. I have a wide range of experience working on all types of assignments both personal and commercial. My background is in illustration, both editorial and advertising, but I have also have over 15 years in graphic design, advertising and web/interactive design. Currently I am the Creative Art Director for a publication in New Jersey, Group C Communications, Inc. as well as the founder and Program Director for Where Peace Lives. An organization dedicated to bringing about peace through art and media working with students around the globe. Both are rewarding positions that have afforded me a creative outlet yet time to work on my own persoanl work. I love to create all the time. It is who I am. what inspires me? As a visual person I find inspiration in the people I meet, the places I travel, and all the things I see. In fact, there is little in which I look at that I donÕt see some kind of art in it. But what most inspires me is traveling. I have had the good fortune of being able to travel to many wonderful destinations with my wife Donna, my creative partner and muse. This has included much of Europe, Central America, Africa, China, India, and most of the United States. Peru to be added in 2006.
My intention for painting is simple. I want you, the viewer, to have an experience of being with the person I paint. And if you fall in love with what you see, that you find a place for it in your home and in your life. My paintings tell a story, they capture a glimpse of someoneÕs life that has moved and inspired me. There is something unique and magical when you paint someoneÕs portrait. I use my own reference so I can be fully connected to my subject. I need to be related in some way. ItÕs this intimate partnership between myself and my subject that has these paintings sing. You get to see inside that person for a brief moment, view their soul, see life from a new and different point of view. I love that and want to share that with others. Traveling and meeting with people from other parts of the world has made me aware of the need for expanded communication, understanding and tolerance. I intend that my art will make a difference, in its own capacity, toward that. My art focuses on the beauty and awe of all people, and what I see in them. I strive to reveal commonalities rather than focus on differences. I think it is a natural instinct for people to like other people and only our fears that split and divide us. When I acknowledge my fears and not have them control my feelings and actions I open myself up to the magnificence that is being human. I transcend race, color, creed, and other cultural differences opening myself up to the unimaginable beauty of the human soul. This is what inspires me most about being alive and what I love to share through my art. what is my favorite medium? Watercolor. (Although acrylic is quickly winning a place in my heart). I am passionate about color, vibrant color, as I feel it totally sets the mood for a piece and nothing does it better for me than watercolor. Watercolor shows depth and transparency like no other medium and I find out something new about the way it works every time I set about painting. Sometimes it is controlled but often it just runs amuck, like an unpredictable child, I love that. It has never become routine for me and challenges me in ways no other medium I have worked with does.
Most of my inspiration comes from my own photos or reference material that I gather. I look for the unusual or unique quality that for me I know will make a good painting. I know that may be hard to describe because it is different for me with everything I look at. With animals I look for the dramatic with people I usually look for the character or mood that is present. The first step for me is choosing the size I want to paint the image. Right now I am working on mostly portraits of various sizes. The next step is to sketch my subject onto the paper. I use mainly Strathmore Bristol Board and also Fabriano Artistico 100% cotton Hot Press. I like the Hot Press surface as it is more forgiving when I need to lift and remove color later. My drawings are rather detailed and give me reference for lighting, shading and other important details. The sketch will be buried under the watercolor paint as I work. Next I stretch the paper on masonite board so I have a smooth surface to work. This allows me to get a little crazy with washes and color without worrying too much about the paper buckling. I work very wet and very fast (the secret is a hair dryer). My palette is pretty standard, made up of Winsor Green, Winsor Violet, French Ultramarine, Indigo, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre, Cad Red, Cad Yellow, Gamboge, Paynes Grey, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber and Alizarin Brown Madder. My secret weapon is diluted bleach which helps me achieve some interesting effects without damaging the surface of the paper. This works much better with dyes but dyes are more fugitive. With people I usually start with my lightest flesh tones and then work up a series of glazes and washes creating the tone and value scale that makes the portrait glow. I work by the 40% rule., where the overlaying values are 40% darker than the lightest value. This allows me to use colors you would not think one would use and it actually works in the painting. Just about the entire rainbow ends up in my portraits but the finished product is still believable and richer than if just done using flesh colors. My focus is the face so often the clothing is suggestive. It depends on how the painting speaks to me and comes into being as I create. No, I don't have a set plan or color scheme when I set about. That comes as I paint and is different for every painting. That's why I like what I do and why I like this medium so much. who are my favorite artists?
how long have i been creating and what or who inspired me to start? I have been creating since I was eating crayons as a child, tens of boxes according to my mother. Never much for serious reading I have always been a visual person and communicate best my deepest thoughts and feelings through my art. My wife would dare to differ saying I am a great writer so I won't argue with her on that but my passion is definitely the brush and canvas. What inspired me to start, hard to say. Both my parents and my younger sister are very talented though not professional artists. We are a creative family and I have always been connected to art in some way. I have been creating art for as long as one can remember and I hope to pass from this life with a brush in hand. My mother still has my drawings from being a child. Often it's fun just to go back and see where I have been in this journey.
One of my dreams is to bring art into younger kids lives. I know that it has made ALL the difference for me in mine. Whether through teaching directly in a classroom or through other programs I look forward to working with kids and exploring with them all the wonder and joy that art can provide for their lives and others in their life. what is my favorite piece? I have so many, however, the portrait that I love most was the one I had the opportunity and privilege of painting of my grandfather, Marshall Clapp, Sr. He was a gentle yet regal character whom I have admired and respected for my whole life. I came to know him best during the last 3-4 years of his life as he opened himself up and shared more of himself with me. I was fortunate to share many of the new possibilities I have created for myself and my life before his passing in late June of 2002. He was 91 years of age. I dedicate the opening of my first public art show in Red Bank to him. He is always with me... jeff
clapp
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