Nationality American Occupation Artist | Spouse(s) Jane Gray Children Linda and Terry Jamison Name Philip Jamison | |
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Books Making Your Paintings Work, Capturing Nature in Watercolor | ||
Philip Jamison
Philip Jamison is an artist working primarily with watercolour as a medium. Jamison's inspiration comes mainly from the environs of his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and his summer home in Vinalhaven, Maine; typical scenes are landscapes, seascapes, interiors and flower arrangements. The daisy flower was Jamison's particular favorite.
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Biography
Philip Jamison was born in 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moving to West Chester, Pennsylvania with his mother "Daisy" before the first grade where she raised him as a single parent. When Jamison completed high school in 1943, he was drafted into the Navy. After two and half years of service, he attended college under the GI Bill. Philip Jamison graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (later known as the University of the Arts) in 1950. This is where he reconnected with childhood friend Jane Gray. They were married in 1950. Philip Jamison has three children, a son Philip III, who resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania and identical twin daughters, Linda and Terry Jamison. They are also artists, and well known as the Psychic Twins.
Career
Jamison's work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and are included in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Delaware Art Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, etc. and in numerous private collections. He was elected a member of The National Academy of Design in 1970 and has been a member of the American Watercolor Society since 1957. He exhibited with The Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York City for 25 years, including nine one-man shows. In 1975, he was selected by NASA to paint his impressions of the Apollo-Suyuz space launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
He was represented from 1958 to 1980 by The Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York City and for over 20 years by Sessler's in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jamison is the author of two books on the techniques of watercolor painting, written in 1980 and 1987.
Philip Jamison has displayed a one-man show at the Chester County Art Association, January 2011 to March 2011, entitled Philip Jamison: Watercolors. These paintings were created during Jamison's summers in Maine. Art Critic Edward J. Sozanski wrote a critical commentary on Jamison's one man show at the Chester County Arts Association, which was extended until the end of April 2011. He wrote "The watercolors confirm the 85-year-old artist's mastery of the medium. They are tightly and economically composed and in terms of color, which he deploys judiciously, absolutely spot-on technique as far as nature is concerned". Philip Jamison has been active in showing his works of art in the Philadelphia area for many years. Most recently (2012), The Woodmere Art Museum celebrated Jamison's transformative gift of almost one hundred works of art from his collection.
Capturing Nature in Watercolor
His first book, Capturing Nature in Watercolor (Watson-Guptill, 1980), contains an introduction to his personal history and Philosophy of Art. Jamison also elaborates on self-expression, interior design, illustration, and discovering watercolor painting as his true medium. Jamison said "In order to satisfy my own inner convictions, I need some reference to nature in my paintings". In the introduction, Philip Jamison recalls his art training, and salutes the artists that influenced him, including Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Odilon Redon, Andrew Wyeth and especially watercolorists W. Emerton Heitland, who was his teacher and mentor in high school. Capturing Nature in Watercolor, generously illustrated with Jamison's paintings, contains information on studio materials and demonstrations of the artist's working methods.
Making Your Paintings Work
The second book, Making Your Paintings Work (Watson-Guptill, 1987), provides more details on his paintings and pencil drawings. Jamison had said " that pencil drawings are often thought as the skeletons of paintings, and they are very indicative of the artist's personality." Philip Jamison goes on to explain the placement of color, overall pattern, using nature, and learning from other artists in his book. Jamison writes about his wife, Jane, who was an accomplished watercolorist in her own right and had a direct influence on him becoming a watercolorist.