Jimmy Wright (1937 - 2008)

Jimmy Wright was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1937, and headed out west to California in 1959 to attend the University of California at Berkeley.  He wasn’t sure if he was going to major in decorative art or nuclear physics. He left five years later with a Masters in Economics and spent seven years in the San Francisco business community.

In 1971, Jimmy headed north to British Columbia and started chasing steelhead trout and taking photographs. It was here that he worked as a fishing guide while also developing his love for photography. When he arrived in Victoria in 1986, he knew he wanted to make his living by creative expression.  He stayed alive with the camera for fifteen years and started painting seriously around 1990. His mixed media pieces, from the abstracts to the animals, were influenced by his earlier career in the world of numbers. One can find hash marks, mathematical formulas and numbers incorporated into most of his work. “It gives one more dimension to a piece of art”

“I tend to keep things more simple and try to paint stuff that people feel good about hanging in their homes. My style is loose, sort of halfway between Robert Bateman and a caveman.” Both his attitude and his drawing ability account for a primitive and whimsical touch to his paintings. He enjoys painting creatures and loose landscapes. Jimmy also likes to work with color in an abstract environment.

Pendant ses études à Berkeley en 1959, Jimmy Wright hésitait entre une carrière dans les arts ou en sciences nucléaires. Cinq ans plus tard, il obtient sa maîtrise en Économie qui lui permet de poursuivre une carrière en affaires à San Francisco, pendant sept ans.

En 1971 il déménage en Colombie-Britannique pour réaliser deux autre passions: la pêche et la photographie. Son talent en photographie lui permet de gagner sa vie, jusqu’au jour où il commence sérieusement à faire de la peinture. Aujourd’hui ses oeuvres se caractérisent par un style simple, mais fantaisiste et il ressent une grande satisfaction de pourvoir contribuer à l’amélioration visuelle d’un espace, grâce á ses peintures.