Darren Jekel
The greatest existential thrill for me is when I get no credit for a painting and I just watched it grow on the wall.
All artworks by Darren Jekel
Elen's Circus • 12 artworks
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This work is a new bold departure to explore a collaboration with Henri Matisse, and my dancer friend [...]
This work is a new bold departure to explore a collaboration with Henri Matisse, and my dancer friend Elen who uses a pole for fitness.
Mediterranea • 12 artworks
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“Good artists borrow and great artists steal”- Picasso. With bright light and California color I use [...]
“Good artists borrow and great artists steal”- Picasso. With bright light and California color I use 'heavy brush' sensuality to steal Wayne Thiebaud (he taught me how to oil paint). Now, when I paint I feel like an alchemist searching for an unreachable prize- a paradise that I ache and pine for. But of course, there is no paradise. Facing that truth is where the focus of much of my work comes through, with pictures that are physical, modern, earnest, and unsentimental. I experiment with materials restlessly- recklessly? I stole Anselm Kiefer. The most astoundingly deep and existential thrill for me comes when I am finished painting and find that my art is not mine; it just grew on the wall.
Dream Dance • 13 artworks
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The figures have risen from close to the earth (see prior odalisque series) and are unselfconsciously [...]
The figures have risen from close to the earth (see prior odalisque series) and are unselfconsciously moving expressively on their feet. Still grounded, body and soul, their heads often appear in the clouds. The hilly landscapes in the background are a metaphor perhaps for the primal self, released and free. My friend Elen modeled for these paintings and gets most the credit for inspiring this work. She has an MFA degree in dance, and using a pole has created some fantastically dynamic poses.
Odalisques • 10 artworks
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In this body of work I am interested in the commonalities and the contrasts that compare the female [...]
In this body of work I am interested in the commonalities and the contrasts that compare the female figure to the coastal hills where I live. The figure is in the landscape, vulnerable and matter-of-fact. Similarities between the two are how the lines rhyme in ways that are a sublime invitation to the imagination, and how the fire adapted, San Francisco Bay Area landscape of renewal compares naturally to a Mother Nature figure. Differences that I think about are how the fragility of flesh contrasts starkly next to rocky volcanic land and sun parched vegetation of twisted manzanita, ticks and poison oak. I also notice our ephemeral inevitability. She is poised next to the old-as-the-hills existential element of time.
Charcoal Paintings • 9 artworks
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I want my charcoal drawings to be as energetic and adventurous as my paintings and to influence and [...]
I want my charcoal drawings to be as energetic and adventurous as my paintings and to influence and inform each other. Charcoal becomes painterly when it gets wetted with a brush, or smeared with a finger on a drawing, and I have developed a practice of drawing with soft willow vine charcoal directly on top of my oil painting canvases. I attempt to draw landscapes like van Gogh, and figures like Raphael.
Yellow Pencil • 14 artworks
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Just a pencil on paper... and some etchings too... enjoy :^)
Recognition
Editor's Pick
The artist's works have been noticed by the editorial staff
The artist's works have been noticed by the editorial staff
Presented in Art Fairs
The artist participates in art shows and fairs
The artist participates in art shows and fairs
Professional Artist
Exercises the profession of artist as a main activity
Exercises the profession of artist as a main activity
Biography
I love the messy brush that makes a neat stroke. An American artist, from the San Francisco Bay Area, I got to know Wayne Thiebaud at UC Davis. “Good artists borrow and great artists steal”, so with bright light I stole his 'heavy brush' sensuality and his California color. Oil is my preferred medium and I often mix it up with a kitchen blender, using eggs and other mixtures to make a mayonnaise-like medium that I call ‘emulsion’. I experiment with materials restlessly- recklessly? I stole Anselm Kiefer. Now, when I paint I feel like an alchemist searching for an unreachable prize- a paradise that I ache and pine for. I zoom in up close with a grid and graphically search and search. But of course, there is no paradise. Facing that truth is where the focus of much of my work comes through, with pictures that are physical, modern, earnest, and unsentimental. Originally my paintings were completely non-objective, abstract. They soon switched to landscapes with far off horizons and narratives of dark longing. Currently dancing females have emerged center stage and my painting appears to be moving beyond ‘post-modernism’ to a place less cynical and ironic. Now I am interested in a back to basics, meta-modern earnestness. But still the most astoundingly deep and existential thrill for me comes when I recognize that I have finished a painting and find that my art is not mine; it just grew on the wall.
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Nationality:
UNITED STATES
- Date of birth : 1960
- Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
- Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary American Artists
Ongoing and Upcoming art events
No data available yet
Influences
Education
1989 - 1991
MFA, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Mt. Royal School of Painting
Baltimore,
Maryland,
United States
Artist value certified
No data available yet
Achievements
Collective Expositions
2025
Mac Gallery, 'Hands Meet Earth', April 15- July 7
Middletown,
CA,
United States
2025
Mac Gallery, 'Entanglement'
Middletown,
CA,
United States
2024
Mac Gallery, 'Changes'
Middletown,
CA,
United States
2024
Sebastopol Center For The Arts, 'Haven'
Sebastopol,
CA,
United States
2024
Sanchez Art Center, '16Th Annual 50/50 Show'
Pacifica,
CA,
United States
2024
Ellington-White Gallery, 'Contemporary Drawings', Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville,
NC,
United States
2024
Art Works Downtown, 'Pastel Panache'
San Raphael,
CA,
United States
2023
Mac Gallery, 'Light'
Middletown,
CA,
United States
2023
Bodega Art Gallery, 2022-2023
Bodega,
CA,
United States
2022
Mac Gallery, 'Dreams'
Middletown,
CA,
United States
2022
Sebastopol Center For The Arts, 'Windows And Doors'
Sebastopol,
CA,
United States
2022
Artender Rental Gallery
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
2021
Mac Gallery, 'Home'
Middletown,
CA,
United States
1997
Finegood Art Gallery, 'Emerging Perspectives Of California Artists'
Los Angeles,
CA,
United States
Permanent Collections
2025
William Bacon
San Raphael,
CA,
United States
2023
Patrick Fischer
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
2023
David Epstein
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
2022
Daniel Maidman
Brooklyn,
NY,
United States
2022
Andrew Keeler
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
2022
Graeme Burrows
Atherton,
CA,
United States
2021
Susanne Hopf
Berlin,
Germany
1998
Adobe Corporate Headquarters
San Jose, California,
California,
United States
1996
Renee Weitzer
Malibu,
California,
United States
1993
Chris Thorpe, Md
Napa,
California,
United States
1993
Jill Ezell
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
1987
George Woods, Md
Pinole,
California,
United States
1987
Sharon Siebengartner
San Francisco,
California,
United States
1987
Ann Roth
Orinda,
California,
United States
1987
Valerie Davidson
Danville,
California,
United States
1986
Greg Dizon
Pontiac,
Michigan,
United States
1986
Karl Coombs
San Francisco,
California,
United States
1986
Margaret Chester
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin,
United States
1985
Richard Fohr
San Francisco,
California,
United States
1984
Carol Lyon
Napa,
California,
United States
Solo Expositions
1998
Dolby Chadwick Gallery
San Francisco,
CA,
United States
1997
Finley Center, 'Contemporary Paintings'
Santa Rosa,
CA,
United States
1994
Grand Opening, Sippy's Art Bar
Larkspur,
California,
United States
1991
Darren Jekel And Justin Lee
Baltimore,
Maryland,
United States
Activity on ArtMajeur
Last modification date : Apr 30, 2025
(Member since 2025)
Image views: 87,760
Artworks by Darren Jekel added to favorite collections: 31
Latest News
All the latest news from contemporary artist Darren Jekel
Added Jan 17, 2025
Added Jan 17, 2025
