Jack Quinn Fine Art & Craft Gallery
Jack Quinn is a nationally recognized fine art painter and national award winning sculptor and wood craftsman. He has always been painting and building but has recently combined both disciplines in a new series of art works using wood panels -- creating unique paintings and sculpture with acrylic/oil paints, sculpting materials and fine hardwood. Many of these paintings utilize the grain of the wood as a design element. These award winning pieces are one of a kind originals with subject matter ranging from pure abstracts to tight realistic landscapes -- and everything in between. Using a combination of artists' quality oil paints, oil stains, metal filings, acrylics, lacquers, varnishes and other media, Jack paints his subjects on smooth conditioned birch panels. These panels are cut in a way where the wood grain can best be used to complement the subject at hand. He seals the painting with varnish so that it is permanent and protected. Most pieces are backed with ½" high density foam board to reduce warping and framed using the highest quality gallery hardwood frames. Jack is a consistent award winner at competitive art shows with over 200 regional awards including many best-in-show awards to his credit. He has had paintings accepted and has won awards in many national woodworking/sculpture shows. He has recently included electronics in some of his work - one such piece won the top award in the wall hanging category at the National 2020 Sculpture Exhibit in New Hope. He has exhibited in the Monmouth Museum's International Exhibition, the American Watercolor Society's Annual International Exhibition in New York City and the American Artists Professional League Grand National Exhibition in New York City. He has had his art work featured in The New York Times a number of times. He is a sought after demonstrator, judge and lecturer. When not at home in Morris Plains with his family, he can be found roaming the regional countryside or trekking through the woods seeking out subject matter for that next painting. Feel free to visit his web site at www.jackquinnart.com or e-mail Jack at designer124@optonline.net .
I am compelled to create and build things. Creating art using an untried concept or method is what keeps me energized. I am at my best (calibrated by a complete loss of my sense of time) when I am with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper thinking about a new art project. Although I enjoy painting and sculpting in the traditional sense, I also enjoy pushing my personal artistic boundaries beyond what I perceive as the limits for the medium at hand. These bouts usually come in waves tempered by a return to traditional painting. If I've seen it done before, it does not motivate me the way producing something new using something new does. Perfecting the use of an existing template does not give me the challenge I need or seek. I am driven to put my own stamp of creativity on it -- not just to be different -- but to produce a work of art using whatever materials and method will get me to the concept I have in mind. I am by no means a purist when it comes to media – anything goes to get the desired result.
As an example of what I'm talking about, I'll use my current series of paintings. I enjoy working with wood. I enjoy doing watercolors. I enjoy math – especially geometry. I enjoy design. What could I do to tap into these disciplines to then produce a unique form of art? I decided to explore painting on wood -- not in the traditional oil painting manner but rather using wet-in-wet methods typically reserved for watercolorists. In addition, I wanted multiple planes floating in a frame but anchored to a primary subject or concept. Through experimentation using pre-stain wood conditioners, permanent acrylic/oil paints and wood finishing techniques, I developed my own method of producing 'pseudo-watercolors on wood.' The process involves smooth birch, table saws, belt sanders, band saws, routers, oil paints, oil stains, acrylics, modeling paste, metal filings, lacquers, varnishes, and so on. These materials are the means to an end -- an end I had in mind before I knew what materials might get me there. I know I've succeeded when I'm happy with the results. An added bonus is when I hear not, "It's different" but rather, "I love it, how did you do it?"