Philip Jamison (July 3, 1925 – September 3, 2021) was an American artist working primarily with

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

as a medium. Typical scenes are landscapes, seascapes, interiors and flower arrangements.

Biography

Jamison was born in 1925 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, 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

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. After two and half years of service, he attended college under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. 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. Jamison had three children, a son Philip III, who resides in West Chester, and identical twin daughters,

Linda and Terry Jamison Linda and Terry Jamison (born January 12, 1955) are American identical twins based in Los Angeles, California who claim to be psychics. The Jamisons' predictions have been featured in tabloid newspapers, and they have appeared in various media ...

. They are also artists, and well known as claimed psychics. He died in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighb ...

, in September 2021, at the age of 96.

Career

Jamison's work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, including the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and are included in the permanent collections of the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, the

Delaware Art Museum The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artis ...

, the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

, etc. and in numerous private collections. He was elected a member of 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 fin ...

in 1970 and has been a member of the

American Watercolor Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

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 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

to paint his impressions of the

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as a United States Apollo spacecraft docked ...

space launch in

Cape Canaveral, Florida Cape Canaveral ( es, Cabo Cañaveral, link=) is a city in Brevard County, Florida. The population was 9,912 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. History After t ...

. 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

. 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 Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

Books

''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 also recalls his art training,"Capturing Nature in Watercolor" pgs 10-27 and salutes the artists that influenced him, including

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolism (arts), symbolist painter, printmaker, Drawing, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he ...

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...

and especially watercolorists W. Emerton Heitland, who was his teacher and mentor in high school.

''Making Your Paintings Work''

The second book, ''Making Your Paintings Work'' (Watson-Guptill, 1987), provides more details on his paintings and pencil drawings.

Bibliography

*Philip Jamison, ''Capturing Nature in Watercolor'', (Watson-Guptill, January 1, 1980) *Philip Jamison, ''Making Your Paintings Work'', (Watson-Guptill, October 1, 1987)