Featured Artist of the Month : Jon Woodhams Apr. 2024 | TheArtList - Art & Photo Calls for Visual Artists and Photographers.

Jon Woodhams

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Jon Woodhams is an award-winning artist and photographer whose work has sold in New Zealand, Ireland, England, Germany, Canada, and across the United States. Jon grew up in a small Michigan town and now resides in Memphis, Tennessee. When not creating art or shooting photos, he is a freelance writer and book editor working with several publishing houses.

How and when did you start creating art?

I was a very artistic kid, always drawing, painting, crafting, and taking pictures, but mostly set that aside as I got older and more involved with music (I play the piano and occasionally write music) and didn’t pick it up again in earnest until I was almost 50 years old.

After living in New York City for an all-too-short time, during which I started taking photos to capture and share on Facebook, I moved to Memphis, Tennessee. I got a nice Nikon DSLR, which I learned to shoot using manual settings. For the next few years, I did a lot of photography, mostly of vintage cars, cameras, or phones but also still lifes and nature. From early on, I often pushed the limits of my photography with Photoshop. Then I had some health crises that changed everything for me. I set my camera aside and began to look at some of the photos in my portfolio and then “manipulate the heck out of them” to create something entirely new that didn’t resemble its source at all. For a time, I mostly created spirals from the photos, which I think was a direct response to my anxiety and nightmares after a traumatic MRI (I’m very claustrophobic). So, in a way, my art grew out of crisis and a life-changing health situation, and I basically backed into it from my photography. But fairly soon, as I refined and developed my skills, I stopped using photos as a base, which felt too limiting, and started creating art from scratch. I began to look for ways to bring more sophistication and nuance to my compositions and to my color palettes, which initially were bright, intense, and saturated.

What media and genres do you work in?

Almost all of my art is 100 percent digital, though there are occasional mixed-media elements (pencil or ink, old sheet music or writing) that I scan in and use alongside my computer software. I use Photoshop as a base for everything, and I use a suite of programs from Topaz Labs to add textures, shading, etc. And nearly all of my work is nonrepresentational abstract art. I love the sense of creating something ex nihilo. (I also still enjoy photography—both digital and film.)

Who or what are your influences?

When I was in college, I took an art history class that was very eye-opening for me. I was exposed to not just new art but also new ways of looking at art, and I discovered and began to appreciate abstract art for the first time. It has been suggested to me that the abstract expressionism, fauvism, De Stijl/neoplasticism, minimalist, and Color Field movements are among the influences that show up most frequently in my work. (I think that my use of color might be something that sets my work apart.) I have striven to be a student of art to make myself knowledgeable and to steep myself in the work of artists in various spheres of style and genre.

What was your inspiration for
No. 602
?

My subconscious mind is always searching for something new or different to try regarding my art. No. 602 started with a snapshot that flashed in my mind as I was waking up--I could see the basic idea, stained-glass-like translucent rectangles in a harmonious pattern. Once I sat down to work on it, it evolved heavily, though in its final form, it is still pretty true to the essence of my vision. With few exceptions, I start from visual ideas (loose compositions and color palettes), rather than from what I hope to express or say, and create what I find pleasing and resonant, but it's always nice when it resonates with and speaks to others too.

Describe your creative process?

My entire process stems from a place of “what if?” What if I tried that? What happens when I do this? Sometimes I will see a sort of snapshot of an artwork in my mind as I am first waking up. More often I just sit down at my computer with a blank (digital) canvas and start adding, overlapping, layering, and blending shapes and colors until I reach a point where I feel comfortable adding my signature to it. I use Photoshop’s tools and my Topaz suite to add elements, layers, colors, and textures to the canvas. At its best and most enjoyable, I enter “the zone” or a state of flow and let the art take me where it will. It is a process of discovery, and, to be honest, I often don’t remember exactly what I did to get to my final result.

What are you working on currently?

As I write this, I am preparing to show my art at the Memphis Botanic Garden, in their Grand Hallway gallery. It will be on display from April 2 through 29 [2024], and TAL members and readers are invited to come see my art and to attend the reception on Sunday, April 7, from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

I want to keep learning and growing in my art, pushing the boundaries, trying to take it to new places, which might well include physical media such as acrylics and gouache and more representational art in addition to more abstracts, which I love creating.