Jerry Weiss (born October 21, 1959) is an American figurative, landscape, and

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

Hagen, Debbie
"Profiling portraits: the most custom of all custom art—portraits, can present a variety of challenges to artists and art dealers"
''Art Business News''. Retrieved September 7, 2009. and a writer. He studied classical drawing, and his career has centered on both the figure (usually from life studies), and landscape (often painted in the outdoors). He says he is "intrigued by the portrait and figure as a most sacred subject." Weiss' paintings are held in such collections as the

New Britain Museum of American Art The New Britain Museum of American Art is an art museum in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art. A total of 72,000 visits were made to the museum in the year ending June 30, 200 ...

and the

Harvard Club of New York The Harvard Club of New York City, commonly called The Harvard Club, is a private social club located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is limited to alumni, faculty, and boardmembers of Harvard University. Incorporated in ...

. He is a contributing editor of ''

The Artist's Magazine ''The Artist's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine for artists formerly published by F+W Media in Cincinnati, Ohio. The magazine was founded in 1983 and claims a circulation of 60,000. The founding company was Fletcher Art Services. F&W Publications ...

'', for which he writes a "Master Class" feature with an overview of

old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

s. He is the son of the comic book artist Morris Weiss.

Life and art

Jerry Weiss's parents met at the Art Students League of New York. His mother wanted to be a fashion artist, but dedicated herself to family while continuing to paint. Weiss said that he inherited an irreverence for life from his father, cartoonist Morris Weiss. Weiss was born in New Jersey, but soon after the family moved to

North Miami, Florida North Miami is a suburban city located in northeast Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, about north of Miami. The city lies on Biscayne Bay and hosts the Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University, and the North Miami camp ...

. He was influenced by the graphic freedom and assured skill of cartoonists, whose work he saw in his father's large collection. Morris asked for his son's advice when buying works by

Dean Cornwell Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

(1892–1960) and had once sat for

James Montgomery Flagg James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1 ...

(1877–1960). As a child, he had over his bed a '' Saturday Evening Post'' cover by

J. C. Leyendecker Joseph Christian Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 – July 25, 1951) was a German-American illustrator, considered one of the preeminent American illustrators of the early 20th century. He is best known for his poster, book and advertising illustrati ...

(1874–1951) and later a drawing by

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

. Weiss was put off narrative work after seeing his father's daily hard-working routine for comics such as '' Mickey Finn'' and '' Joe Palooka''. He sought more enjoyment and personal freedom, and decided to learn classical drawing. A museum director recommended he study with Roberto Martinez, who had been a student of the sculptor Marino Marini. From Martinez, Weiss learned to draw

life-size ''Life-Size'' is a 2000 American fantasy-comedy television film directed by Mark Rosman and starring Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks. It originally premiered on March 5, 2000 on ABC as part of ''The Wonderful World of Disney'' block. The film f ...

, a practice he later taught. He studied at the Art Students League of New York, where he studied light and form. He also studied with Harvey Dinnerstein, whose "emphatic draftsmanship" he admired, at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

in New York City."An entirely new benefit auction experience"
,

Florence Griswold Museum The Florence Griswold Museum is an Art Museum at 96 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, Connecticut centered on the home of Florence Griswold (1850–1937), which was the center of the Old Lyme Art Colony, a main nexus of American Impressionism. The Museum i ...

. Retrieved September 13, 2009. (Archived by WebCit
Weiss began his career during the 1980s as a figurative painter. Ten years later, he took on landscapes – a genre in which he is self-taught – eventually realizing he could treat them as he did a figure in an interior, in terms of composition, pattern and shape. In 1994 he started teaching at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. He held a one-man exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art"> title="Jerry Weiss, Friends"; style="text-decoration: none; height:150px;float: left; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Jerry_Weiss%2C_Friends.jpg" > Weiss began his career during the 1980s as a figurative painter. Ten years later, he took on landscapes – a genre in which he is self-taught – eventually realizing he could treat them as he did a figure in an interior, in terms of composition, pattern and shape. In 1994 he started teaching at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. He held a one-man exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art
in 1999. The executive director of the museum wrote of his paintings: "Jerry Weiss is a product of his age ... Weiss with a great heritage goes to the past for design concepts for form, but looks to the present for his investigation of content." Weiss said the hardest portraits to work on were impatient sitters with no interest in the art. He explained:

I enjoy spending three or four days with people who have knowledge in their field, and I would like to think it's vice versa. I find great enjoyment in these situations. Once the time is up, the portrait becomes not just a painting in a collection, but a memory of personal time shared.

He has held solo exhibitions at galleries in New York, Boston, New Jersey and Maine. His work is represented in the

; the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

; Pfizer Inc.; the

; Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; and

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...

in New York. He has taught workshops and lectured in Florida, New York, Washington, Maine, and Colorado. Having long taught painting and drawing at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Weiss instructs at the Art Students League of New York. He is listed in ''

Who's Who in American Art ''Who's Who in American Art'' is a biographical hardcover directory of noteworthy individuals in the visual arts community in the United States, published by Marquis Who's Who,"Who's Who in American Art 2011 – Publications", Marquis Who's Who, ...

'' and ''

Who's Who in America Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...

''. In 2012 he curated an exhibition of large-scale figure works that included paintings by Dinnerstein, Mary Beth McKenzie, Dan Gheno and Tom Loepp. Weiss is represented by the Cooley Gallery,

Old Lyme, Connecticut Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and the ...

, and Portraits Inc., New York.

Technique

Weiss uses a wood palette and a small range of colors; typically

titanium white Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolubl ...

yellow ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

ultramarine blue Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afg ...

and

cadmium red Cadmium pigments are a class of pigments that contain cadmium. Most of the cadmium produced worldwide has been for use in rechargeable nickel–cadmium batteries, which have been replaced by other rechargeable nickel-chemistry cell varieties ...

light, sometimes with the addition of a deeper red, cadmium yellow light,

cerulean Cerulean (), also spelled caerulean, is a shade of blue ranging between azure and a darker sky blue. The first recorded use of ''cerulean'' as a colour name in English was in 1590. The word is derived from the Latin word '' caeruleus'', "da ...

and green. He occasionally paints with a

knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidence ...

, but mostly with flat brushes to achieve "a kind of blocky modeling". He uses Claessens oil-primed linen for portraits and panels for landscape work. After forming quick outlines, he works rapidly to block in the light and dark areas of the figure and major compositional elements with turpentine-thinned paint. Following this first stage which takes around half an hour, he reworks the areas a dozen times or more, constantly refining and unifying. Weiss usually works to the sizes of a range of standard frames, which are mostly finished in metal or gold leaf.

Writing

Weiss is a contributing editor of ''The Artist's Magazine'', for which, in July 2008, he began a regular "Master Class" feature of art historical analyses on painting, the history of painting and various works and periods in

Western art history The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

. Among his other features have been assessments of contemporary masters, and an essay on his father. Weiss has also written essays for fine art publications and art auction catalogues.

Awards and honors

"Jerry Weiss: Resume
, The Brigham Galleries. Retrieved September 13, 2009. *Fellowship for Painting,

New Jersey State Council on the Arts The New Jersey State Council on the Arts was founded in 1966 to support artistic activities in the state of New Jersey. It is funded by the New Jersey State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Art ...

*Best in Show, Hortt Annual, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida *Isaac Maynard Price,

, New York, 159th Annual Exhibition *Phillip Isenburg Prize,

Salmagundi Club The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership roster ...

Annual Show, New York

Public collections

Boca Raton Museum of Art Founded by artists, the Boca Raton Museum of Art was established in 1950 as the Art Guild of Boca Raton. The organization has grown to encompass an Art School, Guild, Store, and Museum with permanent collections of contemporary art, photography, ...

Gallery

File:Jerry Weiss, Expectation Wendy and Adrian.jpg, ''Expectation, Wendy and Adrian'', 2008, oil on canvas, 36" x 48" File:Jerry Weiss, Adriane.jpg, ''Adriane'', c. 2000, oil on canvas, 48" x 36" File:Jerry Weiss, Daniel Edwards.jpg, Portrait of Daniel Edwards, who is sculpting a head of Jerry Weiss; c.2000, oil on canvas, 60 x 38" File:Jerry Weiss, Standing Nude.jpg, ''Standing Nude'', 2002, oil on canvas, 48" by 24" File:Jerry Weiss, Spring, Mosquito Head.jpg, ''Spring, Mosquito Head'', 2009, oil on canvas, 30" x 40" File:Jerry Weiss, Spring Trees.jpg, ''Spring Trees'', 2005, oil on canvas, 48" x 36" File:Jerry Weiss, Cobalt Autumn.jpg, ''Cobalt Autumn'', 2007, oil on canvas, 30" x 36" File:Jerry Weiss, Evening, Duck River.jpg, ''Evening, Duck River'', 2004, oil on canvas, 24" x 48"

References

External links

Jerry Weiss official websiteA Lasting Impression
''Hartford Courant'', March 4, 2008
Art in Embassies
U.S. Department of State
Artist to unveil paintings at the Main Street Gallery in Chester Jan. 15
''Middletown Press'', January 14, 2010
Hamden Art League kicks off season with portrait and landscape artist Jerry Weiss
''Post-Chronicle'', August 25, 2010
Making a statement
''The Day'', illustrated. January 19, 2010

''Westerly Sun'', illustrated. December 18, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Jerry Painters from New York City 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 1959 births Living people People from North Miami, Florida 20th-century American male artists