Fred Jamar
From CharlestonWiki
Fred Jamar (Alfred Jamar) is a native of the village of Stembert, Belgium, he and Claudine, his wife of 36 years, lived, worked, and raised four children in Brussels, Paris, London, Frankfurt, and New York. Upon his retirement from thirty years as an international investment banker with J.P. Morgan, they picked Charleston as a city in which to live because it has the feel and sense of a European city.Fred has been painting passionately for over forty years, capturing the landscapes, street scenes and cityscapes of Europe, New York and now Charleston. Even at the busiest time in his corporate life he found the time to capture the view from his Wall Street office.
He lists as his influences Van Gogh and Modigliani for a sense of color and taste, and Maurice Utrillo and Suzanne Valadon for their streetscapes. He was personally most influenced by the tragic (and little known) French painter Bernard Buffet. The influence of Buffet is most evident in his portrayals of people and in his series of clown portraits. Fred’s style is impressionistic, and always in his favorite medium of oil. He continues to experiment with new textures and techniques; discarding his brushes for only a knife and a trowel, and composing as he applies the paint, with perhaps just one or two penciled lines on the canvas to guide him.
Since his youth in the village of Stembert, Fred has had the need to paint. It is not seeing or exhibiting a finished product that is his goal; it is the process, the smell of the oils and turpentine, the texture of the canvas. It is the act of painting that drives him. Although his works are in private collections through out the world, it was not until after retiring in the mid-nineties, that he began exhibiting or showing his works in public.
He now truly has the time, painting everyday and completing over 70 works over the past year. His distinctive works have quickly become recognized and repeatedly awarded locally. He has had several solo exhibitions at local galleries and he has been selected as an exhibiting artist with the Charleston Artist’s Guild. His unique depictions of local cityscapes with their characteristic dark skies, and “bubble trees” have met with critical acclaim, and swift public demand.
In 2002 he won the Cooper River Bridge Run Design Competition which gained him wide exposure, was juried into his first Piccolo Spoleto exhibition and secured exclusive gallery representation at the Wolf Contemporary Art Gallery in the heart of the French Quarter.
