Our Spotlight on the Arts is shining brightly on Aric Jenkins!
Aric’s work initially caught our eye on Facebook, we noticed that his paintings were so incredibly life-like, sometimes even appearing as they would be a photograph as the images were captured so realistically!
Aric started drawing at just 18 months of age, essentially copying his older brother who was three at the time. Largely self-taught, our featured artist picked up some more formal techniques in various art classes in public school from grades K through 12. At age nine his father started teaching him the intricacies of wood carving, which he also continues to enjoy today.
An amazing opportunity presented to our artist in his pre-teen years was enrollment in a specialized after-school instruction program in Nicholas Co., WV, to learn from a professional cartoonist and portrait artist named Charles Erkman. Mr. Erkman was Aric’s most influential teacher in terms of helping him expand his portfolio. From basic to advanced levels, Aric relished learning new skills with sketching, proportions, and caricatures, as well as expanding his media into new avenues of pen and ink, scratchboard, airbrushing, painting, and animation.
Aric has been inspired to create beauty, detail, contrast, and light and shade from various sources, mostly natural, to include landscapes, animals, and people. He enjoys attempting the challenge of creating an illusion of 3D dimensionality on a 2D surface through careful observation of the interaction of both light and shadow. Favorite media have been pencils, acrylic paints, chalk, and wood carving often with ties to realism, impressionism, and surrealism influences.
Mr. Jenkins’ career outside of his art endeavors includes working as an aerospace engineer at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station on flight control systems of high performance aircraft. Aric has found this to be a most satisfying career, especially as it has afforded him the ability to replenish his art supplies whenever needed.
Our Featured Artist also enjoys assistant coaching for his sons’ baseball and football teams and volunteering at various community projects such as Christmas in April St. Mary’s County, St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen, and Habitat for Humanity, usually projects and ventures through his church. He also enjoys playing electric guitar mostly in rock, blues, and classical styles.
Learn more about Aric Jenkins below and see his work at:
https://sites.google.com/site/aricjenkinsart/Home
https://www.facebook.com/aricjenkinsart
Personal Quote: Be a life-long learner; aspiring to speak truth in love. In art, don’t be afraid to experiment and make mistakes; that’s what erasers and clean sheets of paper are for!