“I never paint the same image twice.”
Name
Jay Miriam-White
Profession
Oil Painter
Website
Where are you from?
Brooklyn New York
Your style in 3 words?
Out of time or Nostalgic Ethereal Sensual
Your weakness? Your strength?
Some people have said my weakness is that I never paint the same image twice. Meaning each painting is unique and not part of a created or branded “world”. My weakness is also my strength.
What makes you different?
I paint from imagination and I let the colors dictate the composition and emotion. As an oil painter I employ a lot of techniques used by old masters, but I modernize the approach with colors and themes that tell a modern day story.
When did you decide to become an artist?
When I was seventeen. There is a lot to learn with oil painting: more than the foundations of color theory, composition, and understanding your materials and techniques. There is a meticulousness to mastering the exactness when it comes to each step, each layer, that eventually leads to the finished image. I’ve been oil painting for 15 years now, and I know that there are elements of oil painting (i.e. the various ratios between varnish, paint, oils, and thinners) that I may only begin to perfect in my 60s/70s/80s (if I live long enough). The beauty of oil painting is that it requires a lifetime of dedication to be fully understood. This is one of the reasons why my paintings are always different, I am always experimenting with the tools, and I always mix my own colors, so each painting is specific to it’s own color palette, and it’s own oil ratios, and it is entirely its own self. Not like any other work I’ve done. I have to paint this way if I want to really understand.
What do you find most fascinating about your work?
It’s different every time. I think a lot of painters are expected to create a “world” and then to stick within that world. Whether it’s using the same color palette, or painting the same subject matter in different compositions, but what I find most fascinating is that each painting is a chance to better learn how to use the same tools to make something new, something that I haven’t made before. It’s hard, and it can be frustrating because with oil painting there is no way to “erase” a layer and to go back to a point you were a month ago, a point that might have frustrated me then, but now I see was the right direction. It’s a push and pull, c’est rollercoaster.
A few words about your favourite creation?
Never wear your socks to bed.
Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…
The book, “Life with Picasso” by Francoise Gilot and “Renoir, my father” by Jean Renoir.
Who would you like to work with someday and why?
I’d like to work with Paulina Olowska. We’ve never met — she’s based in Poland and I’m based in New York. I love the way she handles paint. She’s a totally brilliant painter all around. It would be amazing to collaborate one day.
A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?
Yes, always. The hamster wheel is analog.
Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“
Painting itself. And of course, h20.
2021: Where are we going?
I’d like to go to France, or Mexico.
When the going gets tough…
Cry. No, I’m kidding. When the grind gets you down, call a friend, get a bottle of wine, do something that makes you feel good, and remember that tomorrow is another day.
Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?
I hope it’s a better place than it is now. I hope a lot of things change.
What would you do if you could change the World?
I’d make sure the entire world is accessible to people with disabilities.
If the universe is everything and it’s expanding, what is it expanding into?
It’s expanding into itself.
Tell us about your future plans…
To be a better person.
Your city’s favourite spots?
Best pizza in NY is a small pizzeria not many people know about, it’s in Brooklyn and called Triangolo Pizza. Favorite galleries in NY are New Release, Half Gallery, and Turn Gallery.
Last but not least: what is your favourite Song?
“Gypsys, Tramps, and Thieves”, by Cher.
One last statement please: „Wood or stone, gold or art?“
Wood and stone.
Your #…?
