Jim Luk
by Michele Malinchak
Achieving success in the art world is often like a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs. For painter Jim Lukens, balancing those highs and lows is something he’s mastered as skillfully as his paintings. “It’s more of an attainable, sustaining goal for me,” he said.
Wearing his familiar green baseball cap, he explained, “In this business you never know when you’re successful. You may win a ribbon at one show but get rejected from the next. Ribbons and sales are great validations as stepping stones, but if that’s all you’re looking for you’ll be disappointed.”
Jim has faced devastating rejections by peers in the judge’s chair, downturns in the economy and slumps in his own inspiration. But he is quick to reboot and returns to the easel as soon as possible. Painting since the first grade, he’s learned the value of resiliency over the years.
Best known for his Impressionist landscapes, he also enjoys painting portraits of animals. Earth tones like yellow ochre and red form the basis of his palette, though he utilizes the full range of colors. His brushstrokes vary depending on the subject and the season. For example, winter scenes like Great Swamp, Quakertown have broader, looser strokes while spring and summer landscapes such as A Willow Grove display more delicate, controlled strokes. In all his landscape paintings he evokes an amazing sense of depth through perspective and value. One can easily get lost in them as they stretch on as far as the eye can see.
Jim paints directly onto toned Masonite, canvas or at times canvas glued onto Masonite. He often works on location doing quick outdoor studies or captures scenes on digital photos. While he prefers painting plein air, he finishes work in his studio. “It’s visiting the location and being inspired by nature that is my motivation and inspiration,” he said.
His plein air paintings are completed more quickly than his animal portraits, which require several thin glazes of color that allow each layer to show through. He always has commissioned pieces going on and works on multiple pieces at a time, all in different stages of development. “Paintings take on a life after so many visits to the easel, so I keep a balance of start-ups along with those in the end stages,” he said. He likes to keep his work affordable and some paintings are reproduced as giclee prints.
An early influence on his work was Winslow Homer whom he admired for his down to earth story telling and work ethic. Locally, Jim has studied with several artists such as Myron Barnstone, Jim Himsworth, Trisha Vergis and Alex Cohen. “My favorite artists today are all the brave ones working in this area without a safety net,” he said. “We rely on one another’s support to keep going.”
Born in Abington, PA in 1959, Jim grew up in Jamison. His natural artistic ability was recognized early on by his parents and those around him. At 12 he began taking painting lessons over the summer. His desire to paint was spurred on when he learned that his grandfather, besides being a carpenter, was also an artist. Primarily a portrait painter, Jim said his grandfather once painted a portrait of Abraham Lincoln directly from a penny. Jim was in the sixth grade when his grandfather died and he inherited his brushes and supplies.
Shortly after graduating from Central Bucks East High School in 1977, he attended Bucks County Community College. Uncertain of a career in art, he followed the advice of others who thought a backup plan would be wise, so he studied business. In 1979 he earned his associates degree and went on to get his real estate license. But the business world was not in sync with his creative inner calling. At a friend’s suggestion, he enrolled at the Philadelphia Academy of Arts and was awarded a full scholarship.
Living in the city at 20th and Walnut Streets was exciting and Jim was able to walk to class. During the evenings he supported himself by waiting tables at the Rittenhouse Hotel. He was in his third year of school when he met a couple, who were vacationing from Palm Springs, CA. They happened to be gallery owners who liked Jim’s work and invited him to show his paintings there. The opportunity was too good to pass up so he moved to Palm Springs in 1989. Besides showing his work at the gallery, he sold his paintings at art festivals, restaurants, designer shops and street fairs.
Once at a street fair in Palm Springs he recalled selling small paintings of desert scenes for souvenirs at $25.00 each. As he overheard people commenting on them he said, “I felt like a fly on the wall of my own funeral!”
He travelled around from Catalina Island to Utah, working as a waiter and selling his paintings wherever he could along the way. The lure of the desert eventually wore off and the chance to return home came about when his sister and brother-in-law bought a horse farm in Pleasant Valley. Jim moved back to help out and many of the farm animals became subjects in his paintings. His fondness for them is evident in his portraits of chickens, sheep, cattle, dogs—even a red fox. His depictions of baby chicks bring to mind paintings of the late artist Ben Austrian. Both share the same sensibility, though Jim’s style and palette are quite different.
He continued to paint at his studio on the farm and through a friend’s connection started showing his work at the former Michelyn Galleries in Doylestown, now known as the Chapman Gallery. Jim has exhibited there for 30 years and at the Trisha Vergis Gallery in Lambertville, NJ for the past 15 years. Some of his work is also available at Joanne’s Frame Shop and Gallery in Quakertown. He and Trisha are good friends and Jim has acquired several of her paintings. “She’s been like a big sister to me,” he said.
He has won ribbons at the Tinicum Art Festival, Phillips Mill Art Exhibition and exhibited at the Stover Mill Gallery four times. In addition, he’s a recurring guest speaker at Delaware Valley College.
In between painting, Jim also worked a total of 15 years finishing furniture and millwork at the now closed Groff’s Unpainted Furniture in Doylestown and at the former J & L Custom Finishing in Fountainville (now part of Zaveta Construction in Doylestown).
These days he’s busier than ever. On December 31, 2015 he attended the rededication of the clock tower at Hatboro’s Borough Hall. Installed in 1812, the clock was recently repaired after years of not working. Not just any clock, it was built by Jim’s great, great uncle, Isaiah Lukens. “I come from a family of clockmakers and carpenters,” he said. Isaiah Lukens, who lived in Horsham, also made the clock in Independence Hall, Philadelphia to replace the original one that failed. Jim did a painting of the Hatboro Borough Hall, which he donated to Hatboro andof reproductions sold will help maintain the clock’s future.
Recently a new endeavor presented itself in September 2015 that caused Jim to leave his comfort zone. A classroom space opened up two blocks away from him at McCoole’s Arts and Events Place in Quakertown (formerly the Main Street Theatre). Jim hadn’t thought about teaching before, though he assisted in some plein air painting classes with Trisha Vergis. “I like to help others so it’s a natural fit for me,” he said. Trisha accompanied him on a few visits to McCoole’s and both she and her students encouraged him to go for it. “I shifted gears,” he said. “Students came, curriculum and content are taking shape, and the result is a surprise I never would have guessed.”
For the past 15 years, his studio has been the converted garage of his Richland Township home. Surrounded by a tall stockade fence, the property is serene and surprisingly private on the often-busy road. The yard has two ponds, a pool, a hot tub and even a disco ball. In the spring and summer the garden is in full bloom and has been featured in Quakertown Alive’s annual garden tour as well as their holiday house tour.
“My studio and home, relationships with galleries and clients and the ability to pursue community give backs provided me with all that I ever needed,” he said. “I’ve been happily immersed in a passion that’s defined most of my being since the first grade.”
To this day he still has the cancelled check for $25 that was paid to his first art teacher. Saved by his mother, the memo on the check reads, “Jimmy's first lessons.” “I feel like that summer session lasted until today,” he said. “I'm constantly absorbing.”
For information on Jim’s oil painting classes or to see more of his work, visit www.jimlukensart.com.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer and avid gardener from Quakertown, PA.