Jamie Evrard is a painter and print maker best known for her lively and colourful explorations of still life, flowers and gardens. Her lush painterly approach to imagery has helped establish a strong reputation across Canada and in the United States.
Jamie Evrard was born April 25, 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. She grew up in a nurturing environment for a budding young artist. Her father was a doctor who loved to make things when he wasn't at the office. His craft interests included lapidary and building duck decoys and model ships. Her mother was an avid writer. As an active child with two younger sisters, Jamie loved to explore and have fun with her family. She danced, figure skated and has fond memories of an inspiring elementary art teacher "Mr. Tock" who fostered her artistic abilities and made school fun.
Following graduation from high school in 1967, Jamie enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and moved from her family home in the mid-west to study art and anthropology. Her undergraduate years in Rhode Island helped focus her artistic strengths as she began to study drawing and etching in earnest. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, she moved west again to pursue a Master of Arts degree at Iowa University in Iowa City, Iowa. There she continued to build on her knowledge of print making, etching and love of anthropology. Following her MA, and realizing there was so much more to explore, Jamie continued to pursue her art in depth and went on to receive an MFA in print making in 1976.
It was during this final year of university in Iowa that she met anthropologist Richard Shutler. They became friends and when Dr. Shutler was offered a teaching position at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby in 1978, she moved north with him. They were married later that year. Since that time Jamie has maintained a studio in Vancouver where she has pursued her painting and monotype print making for the last 26 years. Being a perennial adventure seeker, finding fun and excitement in all she does, when not in the studio, she travels extensively and continues to find inspiration and energy from dance, skating and gymnastics. She is presently exploring the movement and discipline of circus arts. Jamie Evrard and Richard Shutler currently live in Vancouver, BC.
Jamie Evrard has an extensive exhibition history. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections in Canada and in the United States including the Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Seattle Arts Commission Public Works Collection, the Burnaby Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Maltwood Art Museum, University of Victoria, The Claridge Collection, Montreal and, the Artists For Kids Gallery in North Vancouver.
The four plate etching Written In Petals was created exclusively for Artists For Kids with a combination of sugar lift aquatint, engraving and drypoint techniques. The painted lively line and dynamic composition have been a constant theme for Evrard over the years; reflecting beauty in a common object and her zest for life. Her print making prowess is evident in this w ork as the floral form reveals itself through a rich chiaroscuro, a play of light, dark and colour. In this print Evrard writes with a brush at her visual best!
