Seeing the MIRACULOUS

Artist Jimmy Wright has spent a lifetime of learning, living and looking that he masterfully communicates through still lifes in paint and pastels

- JOHN O'HERN

Jimmy Wright has been president of the Pastel Society of America since 2013. Founded in 1972 by Flora B. Giffuni and headquartered in The National Arts Club in New York, the society has grown during his tenure. Last year, the society’s 50th annual exhibition, Enduring Brilliance, featured works from 33 states and 11 international countries and offered over $50,000 in awards. Wright is a master pastelist in the society, a designation for PSA members who have accumulated three PSA annual exhibition awards. In 2018, he was named an academician of the National Academy of Design.

Raised on a farm in western Kentucky, his parents subscribed to five newspapers as well as Reader’s Digest and Life Magazine. It was in Life that he learned about artists such as Jackson Pollock, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso and Matisse. One issue contained a series of photos of Picasso’s home near Nice on the French Riviera and, at the age of about nine, he knew “that was exactly how I wanted to live.” He was already on his way, drawing and painting in watercolor. Years later he was a cover artist for Reader’s Digest.

He spent a summer with his aunt and her husband in Denver, where his aunt enrolled him in an art class taught by Lester Burbank Bridaham. Bridaham had been a student and studio monitor for Kimon Nicolaides who wrote the seminal book, The Natural Way to Draw. Jimmy had also spent time observing and drawing the figure, learning to “look” and developing hand-eye coordination.