Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Douglas.
Hi Jonathan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in rural Chesterfield County and have lived here all my life. Growing up, I was always interested in art but discouraged from pursuing it as a career. I sketched in school, and it never could have been better. I struggled in art classes. Andy Warhol said that he never wanted to be an artist; he wanted to be a tap dancer. I wanted to be a musician. I learned to play guitar from my grandfather, who learned from his mother during the waning days of the Great Depression when most of the county remained in pre-industrial darkness before the WPA extended the power grid to the hinterlands. I played and sang folk and country music with him and his friends, one of whom was recorded by Alan Lomax. Playing music with them in an old country barbershop was foundational in the development of my character and my outlook on life.
In my early twenties, I grew out my hair and played rock music. I learned custom framing from my father and eventually managed an antique store he had opened in our town. Some years were very profitable, but as the market weakened, I sought conventional work and found it as a rural mail carrier. I wouldn’t say I liked every moment, but I stayed for three years while continuing the antique business. As a teenager, I also learned custom framing from my parents and offered framing services through my business. It was while selling antiques that I sold my first paintings.
I discovered acrylic painting as a teenager and dabbled occasionally in my 20s, generally on small pieces of cardboard or paper. Painting is solitary; most of my 20s were spent hanging out with friends. When I was around 25, I began to seek a more contemplative pace of life. I used to sit at my diminutive oak writing desk and practice painting miniature landscapes and portraits. I was inspired by the Mughal paintings of India and the tiny images of Shiva and Parvati. Later, I discovered Bob Ross on PBS. This was before streaming was expected, and I watched reruns of the television show.
I learned a lot from watching Bob Ross, Helen Van Wyk, Gary Jenkins, et al., and I knew a few artists locally from whom I could learn directly. I was also, and remain an avid student of art history. When I’d painted for several years, though, I truly appreciated the importance of art in the 21st century. I always thought painting was old-fashioned, like playing folk music in an era of electronica. Photography and digital imagery were the future. Painting seemed like a hobby, something to pass the time, but otherwise irrelevant in modern society.
Sadly, that is a common misconception other highly educated and cultured adults voiced. I’ve often felt ashamed to call myself an artist and say I’m a painter to lessen the severity of my social deviance. People seem to react strongly, either dismissive and condescending or approving and fascinated, but my occupation is never tacitly accepted. When a person is a clerk in an antique shop, there’s no need to explain or justify that position. There’s no mystical talent behind their abilities to recognize and market products; it’s merely their job. That’s how art should be understood, but it isn’t.
In these times of AI imagery, art is even less understood. I remember when the first primitive AI texture mapping tools were added to Photoshop, and I was told it would replace painting. The myth that art is mere representation is one that even someone like me, with a lifetime of interest in art, has difficulty comprehending. As the Bible says, we only need to look at ancient cave paintings or hieroglyphics to see that people have been trying to represent objects or make graven images. That’s not the purpose of art. Artists are visual poets; our task is to harmonize and balance images in color and form while using them to translate emotion and perception. AI can imitate the former but not the latter.
I have been working as an artist since 2018. I still practice music when time permits, but the preponderance of my time is devoted to producing artwork. Some of my work is representational and meant for the decorative market; others are solely for practicing my trade. I paint self-portraits using a mirror and sometimes two mirrors to paint my back. Having no other models available, as most folks of my generation don’t have the patience to sit for an hour to be painted, I use myself as a subject. Painting self-portraits is one of my favorite things because it helps me understand color and form and, more importantly, forces me to study myself objectively. Painting landscapes outdoors (called en plein air, from the French for in plain air) lets artists study the effects of light and weather conditions on a landscape. That is the macrocosm, and portraiture is the microcosm. It is said that introverts prefer the Odyssey, and extroverts prefer the Iliad. I’ve always liked the Odyssey and prefer portraits over landscapes. Landscapes are more accessible to sell because they are less intimate, and our culture is afraid of intimacy in many ways. I paint more landscapes than portraits and have learned to appreciate them as I’ve learned a sort of reluctant semblance of extroversion in my personal life.
Along with painting, I do custom framing, primarily for myself. I have painted for events, and I regularly paint commissioned projects. I enjoy teaching but need more formal credentials to teach professionally. I plan to produce online courses eventually, and for now, I am making a YouTube series about art appreciation. As most professionals are forced to these days, I reluctantly “create content” for social media, though that is very much auxiliary to painting. My greatest aspiration as an artist is to find a larger audience someday and candidly express my experiences living in the rural south.
There is much about South Carolina that I am ashamed of. The income inequality and indifference towards social justice is a festering problem of our past. Drugs, violence, and religious fundamentalism seem to characterize our state more than pineapples and palmettos, but I have hope for the next generation. Art is essential and can help to overcome the obstacles posed by willful ignorance, misogyny, and superstition. We need to inspire the younger generation to think critically, to cope with the rapid advancement of technology, and to embrace the diversity of a world with fading borders. Art should encourage us all to color outside the lines. It’s worth noting that I also ran an art gallery from my studio for several years. I featured work by me and other local artists. The community supported it as well as expected, but it was largely misunderstood. Art is more than a mere commodity, and most of us only see things as capital. The gallery had a positive and informative impact on the region in the brief time it was operational. If circumstances allow, I want to reopen a gallery one day so that people in the rural Carolina sandhills can have direct access to art and a safe space for quiet contemplation.
Would it have been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No. Art is primarily relegated to a hobby or an activity for children in our area. I’ve worked with several local arts groups and have been the only male and one of the few below retirement age. There is an attitude towards artists as socially deviant, and many people like to play the part as though donning a Halloween costume. When someone fully embraces that role, they are ostracized from polite society. This is why many of our best artists work in tattooing or graffiti.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have worked in all media: graphite, charcoal, acrylics, watercolors, woodcut, digital painting, AI prompting, spray paint, etc., but my preferred medium is oil paint. Oil paint is only sometimes the most practical; that classification belongs to digital painting, but oil is, for me, the most expressive. Oil can be manipulated physically. I often move my entire body into painting, sometimes entering into a trance state. I use symbolic rituals to assist me in channeling the energy of my higher self into manifestation. Whether painting privately, many images of which no one is privy but myself, or something very conservative, I try to harness the creative power the ancients ascribed to the muses.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Faith. I live by divine principles as I understand them. To succeed, we have to fulfill our role in the cosmic order.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jdouglasartist.com
- Instagram: @oakapplestudios
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oakapplestudios
