About

 

Photo by Lissa Gotwals, first published in Art of the State: Celebrating the Visual Art of North Carolina, published by UNC Press 2022

North Carolina native Jack Saylor received his degree in Art from Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. Upon graduating he moved to Spain, then Italy where he began his pursuits as an artist while also working as a product designer for Sarreid, Ltd., a U.S. based home furnishings importer. Over the next 10 years Jack would travel back and forth between Europe and the U.S. working side by side with artists and artisans in their centuries old studios and workshops throughout Spain and Italy. During this time Jack became very knowledgable in old world studio practices involving numerous art forms and materials utilized in the creation of the products he was designing, while at the same time continuing to further develop his painting skills. Living in Europe amongst some of the greatest art ever created afforded Jack the opportunity to study intensely the art of Western and Northern Europe, particularly the Italian Renaissance and Dutch 17th Century which remain sources he draws upon today. This combined with his personal experiences along the Mediterranean deeply affected the young artist and provided the inspiration for the work he is creating today.

To launch his full time painting career Jack moved to the coast of North Carolina. The sea, a lifelong passion and deeply powerful source for Jack would now be his home and would allow him to again tap into those deeply ingrained inspirations and experiences of his years along the Mediterranean. A particular highlight for Jack came in 2007 when he worked with the State of North Carolina to create a large still life painting depicting artifacts recovered from the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship “The Queen Anne’s Revenge”. The only painting of its kind ever created. In 2023 Jack was included in the publication The Art of the State, a book written and curated by Liza Roberts featuring the most notable artists working in North Carolina today.

The artwork of Jack Saylor is extensively held in private and corporate collections throughout the country.