“We’re living in this interesting moment when representational art is more
acceptable.” Timothy Jahn’s 2012 comment about contemporary painting reflects
his optimism about the art historical tradition which forms the foundation of his
own work. He also noted that although his technique often captures viewers’
attention first, there “must also be some sort of narrative to hold their attention
and engage them in the work”. In Jahn’s work, whether paintings or charcoal
drawings, the images offer a starting point for further contemplation. Sometimes
that might be an appreciation of an elegant, patterned still-life and sometimes, it
might be a meditation on identity or mortality.
As a boy growing up in New Jersey, Timothy Jahn discovered that drawing and
painting were not only his best subjects in school, but that they offered an
opportunity to study the world in ways that consistently fascinated him. By the
time he was in high school, Jahn was taking whatever art classes were available
as well as spending one day per week studying art at the county college. In 1995,
just as he was completing high school, he showed his work in the Emerging Artist
Exhibition at the Nabisco Company headquarters, then located in East Hanover,
New Jersey.
Unsurprisingly, Jahn’s next step was to enroll in an art school where he could
receive additional training in drawing, painting and illustration. The duCret School
of Art in Plainfield, New Jersey, founded in 1927, provided a curriculum based on
learning the techniques of representational art, which was already the foundation
for Jahn’s work. With guidance from instructors J. Brian Townsend and Paul
McCormack, well-respected representational painters, Jahn eventually expanded
his studies at the Art Students League in nearby New York City.
The historic Art Students League was founded in 1875 as an organization run by
artists for artists. Today, it maintains the same open attitude toward curriculum
that it established over 130 years ago, with a variety of instructors who teach in a
diverse range of stylistic expressions. In the late 1990s, Jahn studied with Ronald
Sherr and Mary Beth McKenzie, both of whom are part of a long-standing figural
painting tradition in American art. Eventually, Jahn also worked with McKenzie
as a teaching assistant at the National Academy School of Fine Arts, introducing
him to the challenges of being an art instructor while simultaneously continuing to
paint.
The next step in Jahn’s study and exploration of painting came with a stint in
France at the SCAD-LaCoste School of Art residential program in LaCoste,
Provençe. Like generations of artists before him, Jahn’s experience abroad
raised many questions about his career decisions and how he wanted to define
his future as an artist. The intense studio time in France centered around a
postmodern curriculum and immersed Jahn into a exhausting study of nonrepresentational
painting. “In art school I invested a large amount of time
extensively exploring abstraction.The experience has been invaluable to me;
every type of painting that I have studied has fused into my aesthetic.”
Back in the US, Jahn not only began working at the Swain Galleries in Plainfield,
New Jersey where he had his first one-man show, but he also went back to
duCret School of Art to finish his degree. After graduation, he began teaching at
duCret; eighteen months later, he petitioned the school to start a new program
called Academy duCret which would focus on teaching representational art to a
small group of students. It was during this time that Jahn met Tim Reynolds, a
painting student at duCret and a very successful businessman who would later
form a global art education project.
In 2008, Jahn furthered expanded his painting and drawing skills at The
Waichulis Studio, where he completed a three-year apprenticeship working with
Anthony Waichulis Founded in 1998, this nationally respected atelier is
dedicated to teaching representational art utilizing a step-by-step methodology
that Waichulis developed. As Jahn notes, “The time I spent working and learning
from Anthony Waichulis has had a profound and lasting effect on my artistic
endeavors.”
Midway through this apprenticeship, Jahn introduced his former student, Tim
Reynolds, to Waichulis, which ultimately led to the development of an innovative
concept for providing art education internationally. The goal is to provide step-bystep
training for artists throughout the world with the hope of facilitating the
growth of international creative connections. Reynolds proposed using the word
‘Ani’ which is a variation on the Swahili word ‘Andjani’, meaning the “road” or the
“path ahead”. In 2010, the first of these schools opened when The Waichulis
Studio became the Ani Art Academies Waichulis. Jahn was the first graduate in
2011, and would immediately become the first instructor at an international Ani
Art Academies funded by the Tim Reynolds Foundation.
Reynolds built the first new school on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Now
known as the Ani Art Academies Anguilla, Jahn began educating the first group of
local students in drawing and painting in 2012. In return, Jahn notes, “Every
chapter of my life has taken my art work into new and interesting directions. The
inspiration for my art comes from my life experiences and living in Anguilla with
its beautiful light and color will to have a profound effect on my work. These new
experiences will surely add to the narrative of my future works.”
Janet Whitmore, Ph.D.

EDUCATION
Ani Art Academy Waichulis, PA
The Waichulis Studio, Apprentice, Mountain Top, PA
Graduate, duCret School of Art, Plainfield, NJ
LaCoste School of Art, LaCoste, France
National Academy of Fine Art and Design, New York, NY
The Art Students League, New York, NY
Middlesex County Arts High School, Edison, NJ

 

AWARDS
2011 Honorable Mention, International, Art Renewal Center Salon
2011 Fine Art World.com Juried Contest Winner
2011 Portrait Society of America’s Art of the Portrait Conference Scholarship
2010 2nd place Still life Category Portrait Society Of America Members
Competition
2010 Art Renewal Center Scholarship Award
2010 Finalist, The Artist’s Magazine 27th Annual Art Competition,
2010 2nd Place International 2009-2010 Art Renewal Center Salon
2010 Dean Keller Memorial Award The Salmagundi Club Scholarship Exhibition
2009 Honorable Mention 126th Annual Salmagundi Club Members’ Exhibition
NY, NY
2009 Finalist, The Artist’s magazine 2009 cover art competition,
2009 Honorable Mention International 2008-2009 Art Renewal Center Salon
2009 Thomas Moran SCNY Award The Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
2009 Chairman’s Award, The Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
2008 1st Place, The Art Guild 2008 Portrait Show, Manhasset, NY
2008 Elliot Liskin Memorial Award, The Salmagundi Club
2006 Honorable Mention 3rd International, Art Renewal Center Salon
2006 Viewers Choice Award, Bedminster New Jersey
2004 Junior & Scholarship Fund Award, The Salmagundi Club
2003 Honorable Mention First International, Art Renewal Center Salon
2002 Scholarship membership to Salmagundi Club, New York, NY
1999 Traveling Grant to the LaCoste School of Art, LaCoste, France
1999 Award of Excellence, Mountain Art Show Bernardsville NJ
1998 Full Merit Scholarship to the Art Students League New York, NY
1998 Honorable Mention, The Art Students League, New York, NY
1997 Ottlie Hann Weiss Award, duCret Annual Fine Art Show

Misc. PUBLICATIONS
2011 American Video Painting Magazine Fall Issue
2011 Fine Art Connoisseur Three to Watch
2010 Strokes of Genius 3 Best Of Drawing
2010 American Artist Drawing Magazine Fall
2010 American Artist Drawing Magazine Summer
2010 Workshop Magazine Summer
2009 October, The Artist Magazine “Drawing Board: Drawing on the Difference”
2009 Finalist, Artist magazine’s cover art competition
2009 April, The Artist Magazine “Drawing Board: Exploring New Depths”
2009 Monmouth University Program Cover
2009 Garden State Woman.com “Jahn Studios”

EXPERIENCE
2008 to present Founder & Director of Jahn Studios Apprentice Program
2005 to 2008 Founder, Creator and Director of Academy duCret
2003 to 2008 Teacher duCret School of Art
2005 to 2010 Mural Painter, Classical Art Studios
2002 Teacher Somerset Art Association
1997 to 2003 Gallery Coordinator, Swain Galleries
1998 Teachers Assistant for Mary Beth McKenzie, National Academy