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After my conversation with artist Jeff Yeomans, I began to think about the “nature vs. nurture” debate.  I believe each of us is born with magnificent gifts (nature).  Given encouragement and direction from parents, family and teachers our gifts populate our lives (nurture).  Or they are redirected to a career specialty or sadly they may remain just a dream.  Sometimes these dreams stay dormant forever or spark to life by chance when we meet that supportive friend or helpful teacher.  This is the story of Jeff Yeomans, an artist and teacher, whose talents were encouraged and supported by family and community at a very young age.  This support and his own courage allowed him to realize his talent and he became a highly skilled and respected artist.  Today Jeff has come full circle as he implements his skills to teach others to fulfill their own artistic dreams.  With simple and effective painting methods, Jeff says anyone can be taught to be a good artist.  So please join us for an exciting art demonstration with Jeff Yeomans at the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild studio on May 23, 2022.  Jeff Yeomans Studio

Jeff has been painting professionally for over 40 years, but his artistic gift was awakened when he created an award-winning painting in the 2nd grade.  Bank of America sponsored a contest and awarded this young artist with his first official trophy and cash.  Jeff’s parents were also very instrumental in helping to develop his gifts with their encouragement and support.  Jeff comes from an amazing family of artists — all four siblings are creative artists, Jeff being the youngest.  

Jeff started out in San Diego in the 70’s as an artist-illustrator for the local paper, “The Reader.”  He also painted murals and signage until he landed his dream job as Asst. Art Director at KPBS studios.  This was a salaried job with a parking spot at SDSU; a coveted perk for this up-and-coming artist. AS time passed, Jeff was bored with the limitations of the computing world and began to paint again. With the encouragement of his beloved wife, Merrylena he began to paint full-time. At the time he was living in Pacific Beach in the former art studio of Donal Hord. Hord is one of San Diego’s beloved sculptors (think “Woman of Tehuantepec” in Balboa Park). Donal Hord Wikipedia 

It was in the early 1990’s that Jeff began to work as a studio painter.  Producing oil paintings of the world around him (beach culture, surfing), Jeff began to sell his work at the Little Italy Art Walks.  “It was a good time to be an artist, up until 2008 when the economy began to take a nosedive.”   By 2010, with the economy having fully tanked, Jeff responded to suggestions from other artists that he teach. Presently he teaches at La Jolla’s Athenaeum.  He is currently preparing his Pt. Loma studio to accommodate small painting classes.  His fascination with easy color theory is part of his simplified teaching methodology.  He also maintains that critique is an important tool for all students.  Critiques allow the student “to move ahead and not continue to repeatedly make the same fundamental mistakes”.  Although Jeff says that anyone can be taught to be a good artist, learning the fundamentals and maintaining discipline are necessary: “you need to know your craft so you don’t fall off the roof” (his ladder analogy of his neighbor’s use of his ladder properly is a story you all should hear)

Jeff has many tips.  One I’m really taking to heart is “paint what you know.”  Jeff’s own body of work is an autobiography.  He painted his children as they grew up and his work developed and changed over the years.  He feels it’s the artist’s job to take notice and paint what is relevant in his/her own life.  “We live in a world with so much media — slow it down and take a moment and capture that moment.”  Jeff also recommends taking risks by not continuing to paint the same subject — “move on and take the risk, paint the hands, paint the face,” and always keep growing.  I particularly love his suggestion to stop your work at 80% and call it “done.”  He says that the last 20% is usually just over-working the piece.  A student painter usually ends up “knocking down the honest parts,” “killing the fresh strokes.”  So, stop early and leave in some remnants, an imperfection that shows that you, the artist, was there.

Jeff is an artist through and through; it’s in his DNA.  Along with his teaching, he is presently working on several paintings, bouncing from a landscape of an old Mexican Ranch to a figurative piece with a local model.  He says he usually has 4-5 paintings “wet” and shuffles between them.  He uses both acrylic and “solvent” oil.   Acrylic is used first to block in his subject and then he lays oil over the acrylic.  He prefers the body and characteristics of oil over acrylics’ flat finish.  

We spoke of curating one’s work as you move from subject to subject.  Jeff advises to work in a series; possibly working on the same size canvases. He tells his students to work on standard size canvases just to make the job of framing easier and affordable.  He suggests creating a thoughtful 4-to-6-color value outline about your subject for a continued thread of thought in your painting and to engage to the viewer.  All these and more are tips and suggestions Jeff teaches through his simple and direct methodology.

More of his own work is coming up this year with a possibility of a show in La Jolla and an art talk.   He also shared his thoughts about finding art everywhere around you, with his potato chip “wave” collection as an example. As a product of So Cal surf culture, Jeff continues to find that perfect wave.  It can be the wave itself, or a found piece of nature like a palm husk or a potato chip forming that perfect break of a wave.  He has a collection of potato chips and other found objects shaped like the perfect wave.

Jeff’s biggest influences he says are Sorrolla, Wendt, Edgar Payne, Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn.  But just as he mentions these fabulous artists, he tells me of his father’s fascination with “organic stuff” and his love of collecting rocks and geodes — that’s nurture and nature.  He then tells me of the crush he had on his high school art teacher, Mrs. Stevens, a fun-loving guide into the world of art who was a supportive influence well past high school years, such giving nurture.  He then tells me how he misses two of the most loving and supportive women in his life, his mother and his wife, Merrylena – pure loving nurture.  Nature and Nurture – they work hand-in-hand in finding the perfect wave in life.  

Join us and awaken your dream as an artist with Jeff Yeomans.  During Jeff’s May demonstration he will share start to finish photos of a recently completed large exterior mural for a commercial project near his Ocean Beach home. 

Volunteer in keeping art alive in our community, Join the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild as an Art Patron or Artist Member. 

Fees for each demo are $20 for members and $50 for guests. 

Become an artist member or art patron: Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild 

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This month's Name the Artist is Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)   

Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest, 1905