"It's a sea of passion and a sea of peril. Swept away in the rapture of a seabreeze or terrified by an approaching storm, the sea giveth and the sea taketh away. It's the beauty that moves us beyond the danger and the danger that makes the beauty all the more so. But one thing is for sure, once you give your heart to the sea, it is gone forever." Jack Saylor
From a very early age, North Carolina native Jack Saylor's artistic inclinations were obvious by the sheer amount of time he spent making drawings of the world around him. From very early on one of his favorite subjects was the coast, which was a family vacation destination almost every summer. Throughout his young life, he never abandoned his desire to be an artist.
After graduating in 1983 from Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) with a degree in Painting and Design, Jack immediately set about pursuing a career as an artist. With plans to enroll in a painting program in the South of France, these plans were postponed when he was offered an exciting job as a product designer of home furnishings for a major import company based in North Carolina. This position also offered Jack the opportunity to travel to Europe and continue his artistic aspirations.
In 1985, Jack embarked on a year long trip to Spain and Italy where he furthered his knowledge of the artisans and their craftsmanship which was employed in the development of the products he was designing from his studios in Barcelona, Spain and Florence, Italy. During this time he also began work on a series of paintings in Barcelona that would be completed months later in Florence. This first of his many trips to Europe also gave Jack the opportunity to live amongst and study in great depth his primary artistic influences at that time, most notably the famous Catalan artist Salvador Dali, and the great art of the Italian Renaissance, a source he still draws upon for his work today.
Over the next eight years, Jack would continue to balance his careers as both an artist and designer, traveling annually to Spain and Italy. During this period, his own unique artistic vision began to emerge which led him to spend four months in the Virgin Islands painting exotic, tropically inspired still lifes and then later a six months sojourn to the Southern Spanish coastal town of Estepona where he would further develop his understanding of the incredible Mediterranean light and would deepen his passion for painting the sea. Following this, trips to Mexico, France, Peru and the Philippines would provide a cultural experience that ultimately led Jack to recognize the importance of his own cultural heritage and set him in the direction that he has been working ever since.
In the summer of 1994, Jack had his first major solo exhibition, "Beyond the Lighthouse", at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. This show was an opportunity for Jack to present his new work focusing on the North Carolina coast. The show sold out before opening night and would mark the arrival of a serious new artist to the N.C. coastal genre. A year and a half later, Jack and his wife would move to the coast and allow Jack to focus full time on his painting career and to experience and fully absorb the coastal environment to a degree that is not possible from a distance.
Since moving to the coast, Jack has been honored with several solo exhibitions. Amongst them, "When the Spirit Moves", 1995, Arts Council of Wilson; "Call of the Sea", 1998 North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort, NC; "Forever", 2000 Carteret Contemporary Art, Morehead City, NC ; "Jack Saylor; Sky, Land, Sea" 2003, BTI Center, Raleigh, NC, and "Jack Saylor, Sea Spell" 2008, Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, NC. He also has several group exhibitions to his credit and has received numerous awards. His work is extensively held in private and corporate collections.
From a very early age, North Carolina native Jack Saylor's artistic inclinations were obvious by the sheer amount of time he spent making drawings of the world around him. From very early on one of his favorite subjects was the coast, which was a family vacation destination almost every summer. Throughout his young life, he never abandoned his desire to be an artist.