Jessica Singerman incorporates her love of nature and the outdoors in her abstract paintings
The artist: Born in Maine, Singerman grew up in Davidson, NC, and in France, where she enrolled in her first figure drawing class at age 15. Her family moved back and forth between the United States and France for her dad’s work.
She graduated from the College of William & Mary, then earned an MFA from the University of Delaware, mostly focused on painting and drawing.
After graduate school, Singerman led bike tours in Europe, Central America and Australia, before moving back to North Carolina with her husband.
In addition to her art practice, Singerman teaches in the School of Film at UNC School of the Arts.
The studio: The entire lower level of her home in Winston-Salem is a workspace she shares with her husband. The cyclist and runner has her studio. Her husband, a darkroom.
The art & materials: Abstract, landscape and figurative paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolor paint.
Favorite tools: For a long time, hard bristle brushes, but in the last few years she has favored soft brushes – and mostly large, house-painting-size brushes.
What’s popular:
- In 2019, Singerman made a group of large-scale paintings for her show at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem.
The four paintings, inspired by Pilot Mountain (NC), filled the room in the way that Monet’s “Water Lilies” do in the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
She has one painting left: “Of Stones and Earth and Air” (60 x 72 inches, $11,440).
- Her epic ride paintings, inspired by people’s favorite cycling destinations, usually climbs.
Other favorites:
- Pilot Mountain 1, the first of many paintings she made inspired by the mountain (20 x 20 inches, $1,320).
- Her largest work to date is an installation of 1,200 large paper cranes that she folded and suspended from the ceiling in the shape of a mountain in two different locations: Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art, Charlotte (2019) and High Point University’s Sechrest Gallery (2021).
“This is the work I’m most proud of because of its scale and the work and time it took to execute,” said Singerman.
Inspirations:
- Bay Area figurative painters of the 1950’s and 1960’s, including: Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, James Weeks, David Park and Nathan Oliveira.
- Also work by artists Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly Jr., Amy Sillman, Lucian Freud and William Kentridge.
Fun and special commissions: Last year a client asked her to paint an anniversary gift for his partner. He is a filmmaker and his wife is a neurologist, so he asked her to combine stills from one of his films with 19th century illustrations of brain cells.
What’s new: A painting of Stelvio in the Italian Alps. The client who commissioned it loves that mountain and met her husband while riding there.
Recent awards/honors: In early 2022, Singerman received a North Carolina Arts Council Artist Support Grant. With it, she was able to learn how to paint using encaustics, an ancient wax-based paint.
Where to buy: jessicasingerman.com
Get social:
- Instagram and Facebook: @JessicaSingermanFineArt
- Pinterest: @JessicaSingerma
1 Comment