I have long been intrigued by the portrait and figure as a most sacred subject. I began painting the figure in art school and continued afterward, painting the figure in the interior. My goal was to create a visual diary, a pictorial record of artists and friends. When the Connecticut countryside beckoned in 1994, I began painting landscapes in earnest and developed more of an appreciation for the role of abstraction in the representational process. If the shapes aren’t interesting to begin with, no amount of elaboration will save the composition. Whether painting the portrait, figure or landscape, I work from life.
Jerry Weiss studied drawing with Roberto Martinez in Miami, Florida, and drawing and painting with Harvey Dinnerstein, Robert Beverly Hale, Mary Beth McKenzie, Ted Seth Jacobs and Jack Faragasso at The Art Students League and the National Academy in New York City. He has had numerous one-man exhibitions in museums and galleries, and his paintings are represented in public, private and corporate collections. Jerry teaches figure drawing and painting year-round at the Art Students League of New York, as well as intensive workshops there and in other venues around the country. He has taught and lectured at art schools and art associations in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Washington, and was an instructor at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts for fifteen years. Weiss is a Contributing Editor, features writer and author of the 'Master Class' column for The Artist’s Magazine.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS AND COMMISSIONS
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
New Federal Courthouse, Boston, MA
Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, NY
Abraham Art Foundation, Canadian, Texas
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey W. Cooley, Old Lyme, CT
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston,MA
The Harvard Club of New York, NY
Pfizer, Inc., Groton, CT
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Rubin, New York, NY
Book of the Month Club, New York, NY
Goodwin and Goodwin, Charleston, WV
Herrick and Feinstein, New York, NY
Mr. Don Shula, South Florida
AWARDS AND HONORS
Best in Show, Hortt Annual
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Florida
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New Jersey State Council on the Arts
Fellowship for Painting
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Julius Hallgarten Prize, 167th Annual, National Academy
of Design, New York
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Isaac Maynard Prize, 159th Annual,
National Academy of Design, New York
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Silver Medal, 43rd Audubon Artists Annual, New York
