Artist ProfileJay Moore |
Routt County Suite (Color) Etchings |
CLICK ON LINK ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION. Today, the value of plein air painting is universally respected. And yet, many landscape painters have abandoned the demands of field work for the comfort of the studio and the shortcut convenience of painting from photographic references. Jay Moore is an exception - an American painter who rises before dawn to paint at first light. Moore's interest is intense and personal: to paint the way the eye sees, to capture the changing face of the landscape, and to weigh his talent against the ultimate challenge - to capture the essence of a certain place caught in a particular light at one moment in time. Born and raised in Colorado, Jay's family lived in Evergreen in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. As a boy, he remembers hiking every day and fishing in the streams around his house. He and his two older brothers would frequently walk into the woods and often get lost only to figure out how to find their way home. "I always enjoyed the outdoors. It's where I belong. It's how I grew up. I'd just go into the mountains and climb trees and make forts and go fishing." That deep love of the wilderness is at the very core of Jay's being. Jay graduated from school as a graphic designer/illustrator. He recognizes that the pressures of illustration pushed him to a level of professionalism that he carries with him today. But it wasn't until he took a workshop with well-known landscape painter, Clyde Aspevig, that Jay truly considered abandoning illustration for fine art. Filled with enough enthusiasm to conquer Everest in a day, Jay hit the road in search of subject matter. Painting trips are solitary times for Jay. "I'll go a week without talking to anyone except the clerk at the gas station. I can't think of any endeavor where you can focus like that. I'm not a loner, I like to be around people, but when I'm painting I need to focus. Once I have the structure and the little pencil sketch, I just turn loose and it's almost a subconscious thing. It's like you're in a current and you can't stop. When you jump in and start painting, you just enter the flow of the stream for a few hours. Then, when you're done you get out of the water and go get in somewhere else." Each of Moore's paintings has a notation on the back that documents the exact location determined by GPS technology. This practice appeals to collectors and curators for whom the notation adds interest and value. |