Jerry Weiss

Jerry Weiss (born October 21, 1959) is an American figurative, landscape, and portrait painter and a writer. He studied classical drawing, and his career has centered on both the figure (usually from life studies), and landscape (often painted in the outdoors). He says he is "intrigued by the portrait and figure as a most sacred subject."

Weiss' paintings are held in such collections as the New Britain Museum of American Art and the Harvard Club of New York City. He is a contributing editor of The Artist's Magazine, for which he writes a "Master Class" feature with an overview of old masters. He is the son of the comic book artist Morris Weiss.

Life and art Weiss's parents met at the Art Students League of New York. His mother wanted to be a fashion artist, but dedicated herself to family while continuing to paint. Weiss said that he inherited an irreverence for life from his father, cartoonist Morris Weiss.

Weiss was born in New Jersey, but soon after the family moved to North Miami, Florida.

Weiss began his career during the 1980s as a figurative painter. Ten years later, he took on landscapes – a genre in which he is self-taught – eventually realizing he could treat them as he did a figure in an interior, in terms of composition, pattern and shape.

Weiss said the hardest portraits to work on were impatient sitters with no interest in the art. He explained: I enjoy spending three or four days with people who have knowledge in their field, and I would like to think it's vice versa. I find great enjoyment in these situations. Once the time is up, the portrait becomes not just a painting in a collection, but a memory of personal time shared. Weiss instructs at the Art Students League of New York. He is listed in Who's Who in American Art

Weiss is represented by the Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut, and Portraits Inc., New York.

Writing

Weiss is a contributing editor of The Artist's Magazine, for which, in July 2008, he began a regular "Master Class" feature of art historical analyses on painting, the history of painting and various works and periods in Western art history. Among his other features have been assessments of contemporary masters, and an essay on his father.

Weiss has also written essays for fine art publications and art auction catalogues.

Awards and honors

Fellowship for Painting, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Best in Show, Hortt Annual, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida Isaac Maynard Price, National Academy of Design, New York, 159th Annual Exhibition Phillip Isenburg Prize, Salmagundi Club Annual Show, New York

Public collections

Boca Raton Museum of Art New Britain Museum of American Art University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Gallery