Jamie Payne – Summer Paint & Draw Contest

Knoxville born artist Jamie Price Payne brings a life-long interest in and enthusiasm for art to her painting. Jamie received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1981 from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, with a concentration in drawing and painting. She then took up a career as a graphic designer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she designed and produced science posters, brochures, and graphically designed reports for the US government.

“In my early career, working full time and raising my son left me little time to pursue my real interest in painting,” she says. Then recently, a unique opportunity came that brought home to her, what was missing from her life. Her friends, owners of Boyd’s Jig and Reel, in Knoxville’s Old City, invited her to create a mural for their Scottish-themed pub.

The work shows Scots across a verdant, hilly landscape, engaged in their unique cultural activities, with sheep, children, small dogs, athletes hurling the javelin, clutches of chattering women, and crowds at market spanning the scene.

“Doing that mural for the Jig and Reel just opened something deep in me. It reawoke my passion for painting,” Ms. Payne said.

The experience launched her back to her earliest creative dreaming and set her feet back on the road she always wanted to follow.

Color, organic lines and shapes are what fascinate her and what she wants to continue exploring as she moves forward.

“Picasso once said that art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” Ms. Payne said. “That is my favorite quotation, it expresses what I feel about the world I enter when I sit down to paint.”

See more of Jamie’s work:

http://gallerynuance.com/meet-the-artists/