| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Doug Jamha began his career as a professional musician, then trained as a visual artist at the University of Alberta, initially working in abstraction. He is best known for his figurative paintings – high in visual tension, with stark black lines and strong value opposition. Jamha’s preferred subject matter is the female figure, and he described his work as “painting the relationship between me (the artist) and the model.”
Jamha worked within fairly strict, self-imposed limits concerning the composition of his works, the format, and the subject of his paintings. This allowed him to focus and respond with clarity to variations from one image to another. He sketched extensively and explored countless vantage points of the same subject, attempting to capture the whole of the human form. This constant and open-ended research helped him keep his work alive. His drawings and photographs eventually were translated into paintings, often taking two years to complete. Tactile elegance, veiled monochrome washes of ochre, umber, and greyed hues, and a vigorous charcoal line characterized his acrylic paintings.
Jamha’s obsession was the relationship between men and women, and exploring the constant struggle inherent in life, sexuality, and death. His figurative paintings were a form of self-portrait, and a way to explore these ideas in himself through his painting of others.
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