Perfectly Real

Realism artist Jason Drake captures a moment in time and invites the viewer to enter, whether it’s inhaling summer’s end or shivering on a frosty winter walk. His subjects are the familiar scenes of family farms, animals at play, and people just enjoying life in the Blue Ridge Mountains near his home in Todd, North Carolina.

Deer roaming freely, a kitchen warmed by a wood-burning stove, sliced apples, and a cider jug on a well-worn counter are just a few images inviting viewers to revel in the simple chores and joys of country living.

Drake wants viewers to partake in the scenes of life that are dear to his heart.

“I want someone to feel like they are in the scene, part of it, stepping into it. That’s the feeling I want to give with my paintings,” Drake says.

Drake paints with oil and watercolors and has learned to master egg tempera. He teaches other artists how to make their own egg tempera paint just like Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Andrew Wyeth, his inspirations, used in some of their works.

“Egg tempera painting is so unique because every stroke dries almost instantaneously,” Drake says. “There is something chemical about the way God has created egg yolk. We don’t even use the white, we just use the yolk, and separate the yolk from the sack. It is a fatty emulsion, much like a plant oil, but it mixes with water. Your paint stokes dry within 5 to 6 seconds.”

The quick drying strokes have a downside. They don’t stay wet long enough to blend colors well, so the artist has to use crosshatching styles and overlapping layers.

“I have always been such a fan of Andrew Wyeth’s work because of his style of using watercolor and egg tempera. The egg tempera is matte in surface. When you paint with this method, you work slowly, building layer upon layer with the patience of a craftsman. It’s an unhurried style that I enjoy,” he says.

Drake’s portraits, much like Wyeth’s, tend to focus on a resting profile lost in thought. In Leaving Home, it is difficult to interpret what the young woman is feeling, perhaps melancholy. In Time to Dream, Drake captures the far-off gaze of someone in deep thought. Even the children he features seem to have a serene purpose to their activities instead of smiles and grins.

In his boyhood, lived partially in the Carolinas and Virginia, Drake spent time scribbling and painting, but his desire to be a pilot pulled him into studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in Indiana. He then spent 10 years flying helicopters in the Marine Corps before he began pursuing art again.

He worked many years in graphic design, advertising, and internet design before leaving the corporate world behind in 2015 to become a full-time artist.

His work resides in properties all over the U.S. Recently, his award-winning Eventide sold at auction in the Charles Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. Eventide is an oil painting that beckons not only the cows but weary travelers to return home. It was the Southwest Art Magazine winner in the 16th International ARC Salon Competition in 2023.

“The homestead is a place of warmth and memories. I painted this composition capturing the soft fading light of the day and the sense of anticipation of arriving back home,” he says. “The home is a renovated farmhouse that was restored by dear friends.”

Last summer, Drake exhibited with fellow artists from the Blue Ridge Realists (BRR) at the Bob Timberlake gallery show in Lexington, North Carolina. Timberlake was the co-founder of the BRR group.

Drake’s process is to capture images with sketches and photographs, often visiting a site numerous times to see an object in different lighting. He took multiple photos of the New River to capture the right mood before creating the award-winning Daybreak at River’s Edge. A fantastically lit egret, inspired by a stock photo, takes flight out of the rising mist as the focal point.

He usually paints a practice piece on 1/8th-inch wood with a canvas glued on it, or on 8”x10” Masonite, or simply watercolor paper.

“I try to do a small practice piece plein air, but I often rely on sketches and photos,” he says.

Drake is working on a series of Biblical characters in the Renaissance style of Caravaggio and Michelangelo — large, bold, and emotion filled. In his work What is Truth, Pontious Pilate ponders the question that is so relevant even today. Due to the size of the planned works, he imagines them at home in a large church, seminary, or university.

Drake’s original paintings and prints of these paintings, and more, are available at his website, JasonDrake.com.