For more of Jeffry's services
See our "About Us" video below!
SHOW HISTORY
The Complete Painter was originally entitled "Painting Secrets" and was produced at Comcast Cable's Northwest Indiana studios. An 8-show season was produced by just Jeffry and a few volunteers.
The show, being different than most painting shows was very well received, and it wasn’t long that a Florida-based art network and a Chicago-based cable broadcaster both offered Jeffry contracts to produce an ongoing series. Meanwhile, Jeffry had further format improvements in mind, needed more air time to fulfill those needs, and felt public television would actually fulfill those needs best.
The show “The Complete Painter” was then born. Jeffry's intentions had always been to produce a painting show like no other - a show that included every topic useful to artists – making viewers well-rounded “complete” painters. He covers the fundamentals that any quality instructor needs to cover, but also includes information others simply don't- including most universities or adult community art centers.
The show might be described as an artist’s lifestyle show – including everything artists do, or need to do, on a daily basis in order to achieve one’s personal goals in painting. It’s also much like a documentary when researching people and places to be painted on the show. So those who don’t even paint find it educational and interesting as well – giving insight as to how artists create the work many of us buy, or just appreciate.
For those who actually do paint, most demonstrations are given in oils, but other mediums are also included, covering nearly any painting and drawing media. And because such a wide range of topics are covered, even the most experienced artists benefit from watching the show.
In addition, Jeffry periodically takes viewers on brief tours visiting people or places of interest to amateur and professional artists, art patrons, and art collectors.
SHOW GUESTS
Jeffry hosts the program and provides the majority of lectures and demonstrations on painting technique. However, some of the top artists in the country also contribute as guest instructors. Other art-related guests contribute as well, along with guest composers supplying select featured background music. Last, serious paintings often require some pre-painting research. Our experts in the many interesting subjects we paint help in this department - making the show interesting, fun, and educational for all types of viewers, not just painters.
JEFFRY’S TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Jeffry’s teaching philosophy is based upon first teaching strong technical skills and possessing a strong understanding of representational art. When teaching, he prefers to inform the student more on technique, rather than on artistic style or expressive philosophy. By first mastering painting technique, and having proficiency in painting our actual physical world, the student possesses the "tools" (or actual ability) to express themselves in many different ways - without limitations. Imagine Mozart trying to write and play all the music he “heard” in his head, but could only play 3 chords - on only 1 instrument!
Jeffry also feels the "expressive" nature of an artist’s work actually should come from within the individual student anyway. "Feedback on artistic direction is always helpful, but not when a student spends all their efforts trying to copy their mentor’s work, or some other artist." Studying other successful artists is good exercise, but a student should strive to find their own inner “voice”, and not waste too much energy on something that’s already been done.”
One last objective of the program is to teach "fine art" methods to those who may have believed they were only capable of understanding (and producing) craft or “decorator” art. We want to demonstrate that most armatures can produce more professional looking work when they are simply given the right information, and work in a more thoughtful way.
THE FUTURE
As for our current status, much work and filming has been completed with the first season being finalized. At the same time many seasons 2 and 3 shows are currently being edited with more painting demos being filmed & finished - Jeffry often works on a few paintings at a time, not to be held up by drying time or supporting footage or required interviews.
With season 1 basically ready, we are currently raising the funds for distribution, promotion and close-captioning. Even though Jeffry was offered a show for a commercial network, he choose to do a LOT of volunteer work producing this show simply because he felt the PBS audience was best suited for a show such as this, and producing in such a independent mannor, he could maintain complete creative control and quality - not having to cater to the typical TV studio limitations. One never knows how long any of these shows may take to do - and we take as long as it requires to do it right.
