James "Jim" Daniel Torlakson (born February 19, 1951), is an American artist known for his photorealist oil paintings, watercolors and aquatint intaglio etchings. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Early life

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

on February 19, 1951. Growing up in the Westlake neighborhood of

Daly City Daly City () is the second most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with population of 104,901 according to the 2020 census. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco (sharing its ...

, Torlakson moved to Pacifica by the sea in 1971 where he has lived since becoming a professional artist. He started drawing at an early age, encouraged by his parents, who entered a drawing of his in the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' "Daily Junior Art Champion" when he was six years old; he was awarded first prize. He was also inspired by artist George Post, a Californian watercolor painter, who was his grandparents' neighbor in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. His brother is American politician

Tom Torlakson Thomas Allen Torlakson (born July 19, 1949) is an American educator and politician from California. In 2010, he was elected to the position of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a position he served in until 2019. He is a member ...

. He studied general fine arts and received a B.F.A. in 1971 at

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...

, graduating before going onto complete a

Masters of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1975 at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

Work

Torlakson’s photorealism subject matter and imagery have centered on “every day” America including trucks, railways, amusement parks, waterfronts, fireworks booths, deserted drive-in theaters and coastal landscapes. His oils, watercolors,

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

etchings and drawings have been exhibited nationally since 1971 within United States and Internationally, with works housed in the permanent collections of many American Museums, including

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

Oakland Museum The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Brooklyn Museum,

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, Rhode Island School of Design Museum; New York Public Library’s print collection, Art Institute of Chicago,

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

and the De Cordova Museum. He was a professor at

City College of San Francisco City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a public community college in San Francisco, California. Founded as a junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local role, annually enrolling as many as one in nine San Franci ...

from 1999 to 2017. Other teaching experience also includes

and

Skyline College Skyline College is a public community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have gr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torlakson, James Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area California College of the Arts faculty City College of San Francisco faculty 1951 births San Francisco State University alumni Living people 20th-century American printmakers California College of the Arts alumni 21st-century American printmakers 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American male artists American male painters Painters from California