Artist captures quieter side of life

Artist in residence John Paul (Jack) Braman lives quietly in Naselle, near the Covered Bridge. Like the man himself, his house is a reflection of the quiet solitude his life needs to capture nature in paints.

Jack’s house sits in the shade. His dog barks inside, wanting to go with him to his studio. It’s outside and up the hill behind his house.

Jack talks quietly as we walk,

“I moved here from Portland in 2005,” he said, as we settled down to talk in his studio, “and its taken awhile to get this space built.”

The studio is open and airy. A dozen various sized, unfinished paintings line the walls. The paintings are being readied for a show in Southern California. Soft unfiltered light, the kind you’d expect to find in a landscape artist's studio, tumbles through large windows, flooding the whole front of the space.

Like the paintings sitting on easels and the floor, his studio is unfinished. A small fireplace sits along the east wall hoping for a flue. Sheet rock seams coated with plaster await the sanding block. Sitting there, you get a sense that things happen slowly in Jack’s life, in a peacefully determined way.

Jack started drawing at an early age. “I knew I was gonna be a professional artist by the time I was five years old,” Jack said leaning back in a comfy high backed chair. “Back then I told my parents I wanted to be an artist.”

Braman said even as a child, his art drew a lot of attention and by the time he’d graduated college he was already making a living painting. “I was showing in quiet in a few galleries right out of college,” he said.

Jack graduated from the University of Oregon with a Fine Arts Degree. He has worked as a full-time, professional artist since graduation and has won numerous awards while showing his work in galleries throughout Oregon, Idaho, California and Arizona.

Jack said after college he knew the only way he was going to be an artist was to do it. He said if he had put his energies into working a job then it would have taken away from what he really wanted to do – paint.

Besides Braman’s obvious talent as a painter, he attributes his success to learning about the business side of the art world.

He said he purposely cultivated the owners of galleries in places like Carmel and Palm Desert, Calif. His paintings also hang in the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Ore. and in Sun Valley, Idaho. “I felt if I placed my work in galleries where people like to vacation, they’d have a better chance of selling,” said Jack.

But even the art world has it's down turns. Jack said the 1980s was not a good time for painters and for awhile, to make ends meet, he taught workshops as a sideline. “It wasn’t my favorite thing to do,” he said.

But Braman believes this last economic downturn has been good for him. It’s made him work harder and try different things.

“I find that usually something good always comes out of adversity,” he said, “and for me the last couple of years have made me dive deeper into my work and understand a little more of what I’m doing.”

Landscape painting is more than a representation of visual beauty offered by nature. Jack said his paintings express the emotional and spiritual relationship he feels for the planet. Artists need inspiration and Braman said he draws his from nature.

Jack said he often hikes into the wilderness with a sketchpad, pencils and maybe a few paints, and his camera. He said he feels at home and peaceful in the outdoors. “When I’m hiking in the woods it takes me to a different world,” said Jack.

For him it’s not so much the destination that’s important but the distance traveled, sights seen and impressions garnered. “When I’m hiking and camping, by the time I get to where I’m going I’ve left all the garbage of modern life behind.” he said.

There seems an emptiness in landscape painting. It’s as though the picture is “to be continued” and one wonders what painters who specialize in the genre search for in their work. “I have to go deep inside myself to do my work,” said Jack, “that’s my favorite part.”

Jack intimated his work is a kind of spiritual journey that seeks the peace often found by one alone in the wilderness.

To the observer Braman’s beautiful landscapes seem to have captured the solitude and vastness of a never ending planet. But as you look for meaning in the painting, the loneliness of the scene suddenly asks “Why are we here?”

“As I paint, I develop a relationship with most of my paintings,” Jack said, “and for awhile it’s like I’m back there enjoying the place one last time,” he said.

Braman said his interests have shifted slightly since moving to Wahkiakum. He said he wants to begin painting more of Wahkiakum’s history. “I’ve painted several barns in the area,” he said, “and between the history and the beautiful landscapes in this county - that’s why I moved here.”