Jason Bowyer PPNEAC PS RP (1957 - 2019)

Statement

Jason Bowyer’s paintings are figurative, but he often tried to find abstract solutions to resolve his visual and conceptual ideas. A continuous process of drawing operated from his sketchbooks. He was often asked about how long a picture took and his answer was “from a blink of an eye to a dream like sequence of several years”.

He responded to the romantic notion of finding beauty in his own time and place and he collected ideas on colour, texture and emotion that would be intuitively woven into his paintings.

Methodology

To quote from Jason's family and friends, regarding his work:

"Light was a crucial element in his paintings and he preferred a cluster of dramatic clouds to a clear blue sky any day. He seemed to have absorbed the atmosphere along that coastline and the more familiar he became with it, the more he wanted to bring out a more sculptural quality - linking them to the interiors of the workshops and the structured still lives he painted back in his studio at the Steam Museum." - Claire Ireland

"He was a person of huge integrity and great humility, and that is reflected in his paintings. They are of places where people do tough, honest, hard work; his portraits are straightforward, truthful, never flattering, evasive, smudged or fudged. For those of us who find these qualities difficult to achieve, he was an example. He was also cheeky, insightful, and the warmest of friends, and in lots of ways, for me he was the New English.” - Charles Williams NEAC RWS

"He was a painter taken away at the peak of his powers." - Alex Fowler NEAC

Bio

Jason Bowyer was born in Chiswick, London, on 4 March 1957. He studied Foundation and BA Fine Art at Camberwell School of Art (1975–9), then completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting at the Royal Academy Schools (1979–82). 

Jason was a key figure within the Federation of British Artists, based at Mall Galleries. He was elected as a member of the New English Art Club in 1989, serving as President between 2008 and 2013, joined the Pastel Society in 2004, and became a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2006.

He was also the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon Championship artist in 2011. In 2013, he went to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan as a war artist with his brother Francis for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).

Jason's painting was entwined with his family life. He was the son of artist William Bowyer RA and sculptor Vera Bowyer, brother to painter Francis Bowyer NEAC RWS, and often collaborated with his wife Claire, a ceramic sculptor, and his son, a graphic designer.

Jason painted his last works on Walberswick beach in glorious sunshine just a few days before his untimely death on 17 February 2019.