Jason from The Blocks
Inspired to become an artist by the tough love of his teachers, Jason Jenkins is making a stir internationally
Jason Jenkins is a long way and a long time from The Blocks. His paintings evoke a traditionalist style that is making a comeback — after a long era of modernism in the art world — and the emotion and character they capture is as real as it gets.
The Philadelphia, Pa., artist grew up in the St. John’s social housing neighbourhood on Cashin Avenue nicknamed “The Blocks.”
Encouragement from two Holy Heart of Mary teachers, one of whom insisted he fill out an art school application, took him to the then Grenfell College fine arts program in Corner Brook, from which he graduated in 2001.
“I was 18, from The Blocks and had no idea where I was going. She gave me the old tough love and got it done,” he recalled in a telephone interview.
He gained some name recognition in St. John’s, while waiting tables to help earn a living, and after four years moved out into the world.
In St. John’s, Jason Jenkins had been represented by the James Baird Gallery and said he was overjoyed when he sold three pieces at the opening night of his show.
“Jim tells me the next day that’s people’s art budget for the next two years,” Jenkins recalled, adding he then took his savings and moved to Montreal four years after graduating art school.
After a couple of years there, he went to teach English in South Korea. The time there and his work schedule allowed him to have a productive period.
He had works in a number of galleries in Korea, but the art market wasn’t there for his type of work.
However, savings from his teaching job allowed him to come back West without having to find jobs outside art as a career.
Jenkins pursued four more years of study in the advanced fine art program of Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, where he currently holds a fellowship.
A month after graduating, he had a job teaching there. Painting mostly in oil, his work has been shown internationally and he has associate living master status with the Art Renewal Center in Port Reading, N.J. His work has been profiled in Fine Art Today and International Artist Magazine. Now he is getting ready to go gallery shopping in the U.S., building his inventory after receiving a
grant from the Stobart Foundation.
He’d also like to open his own but isn’t sure eventually school, where. “I have plenty to learn at this place,” he said of being content for now to learn from more experienced faculty.
Someday he’d like to have a summer home on the ocean in some place like Middle Cove, or a place in downtown St. John’s. Heather Reeves and Virginia Houston were the two teachers who encouraged him the most at Holy Heart and he said he isn’t sure what he would have done if that application had not been forced on him.
“I know I would still in some capacity be doing something artistic,” he said.
“I don’t know if I would have had the gumption to go for formal training. Perhaps I would be doing more stuff like murals and signage.”
As a child, he would paint cartoon figures, and in school would submit full complex images rather than the usual stick figures many little kids draw.
Over the years he’s tested out some different approaches, but prefers freehand.
“It makes me happy when I do it that way,” he said, adding using something like a projector doesn’t involve the same problem-solving and is not as exciting.
Jenkins isn’t represented in St. John’s these days, but is still at a gallery in Montreal. He gets home to visit family but would love to come back at some point and have an exhibit, put off a workshop or do some public demonstrations.
As for his style, Jenkins said it’s exciting that traditional realism is coming back into the fold after being viewed as old fashioned for about 100 years while contemporary conceptual and modern art took the spotlight.
The internet has helped likedminded artists find each other and galleries are starting to shift to a mix that includes realism, he said.
“When I graduated university …. you couldn’t make a living as a realist painter,” he said. Now there are scholarships, grants and major contests. “There used to be nothing. It was a desert community,” he said.
“Thirty years ago, people were trying to keep this alive and didn’t know each other were out there . ... (Now) you’re not alone. There’s a community of like-minded people to share ideas with and get advice.” Illustrators from the era 1920s to ‘70s like Norman Rockwell were the torchbearers who kept realist artistry alive, he noted.
Inspirational art for Jenkins comes from the likes of genius masters Michelangelo and Rembrandt. Jenkins wife, Silvia Vasconsellos Riva, is a trained attorney working as a paralegal until she passes the U.S. bar.
They have two children, Ignacio, 21, and Jesus, nine. While in school in Philadelphia, he worked a number of jobs — ran the school store, opened the studio on weekends and was the school custodian, photographer and archivist.
He still opens the studio and does photography and archive duties.
“Philadelphia has been pretty good to me. Being a student here, of course, times got lean... but I am happy with my family. I have a nice apartment and good opportunities springing up,” he said.
“I am in a good place right now.” For students like himself, he has a little advice: “I would say don’t be discouraged. Be courageous. Be focused. Have a good work ethic and look for like-minded people, find a place to develop to what you are supposed to be.”
Jenkins website is: www. jasonpatrickjenkins.com