Leucadia artist, teacher finds beauty in un-modern art

North County Times – Escondido,CA,USA
And so the conversation goes on: What is art, anyway? If you ask Jeffrey
Watts, who lives, paints. representational. Think landscapes, bouquets of
flowers, …

And so the conversation goes on: What is art, anyway? If you ask Jeffrey Watts, who lives, paints

and exhibits his work in Leucadia and runs an art school in Encinitas, it is traditional and

representational. Think landscapes, bouquets of flowers, and ordinary people captured as they live

their lives. It is beauty, it is a worthy profession, and it is hard work. “It’s important to

understand that mastering art is like learning to speak a foreign language: It takes years to become

fluent. It’s also about having something meaningful to say from one’s own life experience … And

what do you do with art? What don’t you?” he asked, referring to the initial inspiration behind all

created things, from a portrait to a car. Watts, who grew up in San Diego, was inspired by the

plein-air work of his father, Robert Watts (with whom he now shows at The Berringer Gallery). “I

attended an atelier, a European-type of art school, in L.A. and looked for a similar type of

environment to continue my education when I decided I wanted to return to this county to paint. I

couldn’t find a school that emphasized figurative studies and taught the fundamentals seriously, so

I decided to create one. I guess I wanted to be around like-minded people who shared my interests,”

he explained. He opened the school, Watts Atelier of the Arts, in 1992; it currently offers 80

classes in which some 200 students are enrolled. “Young people just starting out are getting

frustrated because they’ve been led to believe the computer can create art, but it can’t. They need

to be able to draw, and they are mad and getting jaded when they are told to feel their way through

a piece. They know they’re not learning what they need to get decent jobs. Of course they want to be

creative and make a good living with their skills. The only starving artist should be one that isn’t

any good,” Watts continued. That philosophy and confidence has led Watts to garner a number of

awards, as well as an invitation to enter a piece in the prestigious Prix de West’s 100th

anniversary show of historical Americana, to be held in Oklahoma City later this year. The

40-by-50-inch painting, “The Craftsman,” depicts Lakeside saddle carver and farrier Denny Bryan at

work on a new saddle. “There is a huge collector base for work at this proficiency level. One such

painting, done by a living artist, brought in over a million dollars,” he noted. Watts realizes his

choice of genre, subject matter and style is not universally admired, but, although he allows there

is a place in the broader spectrum of art for expression and therapy, he says he is part of a strong

movement that likes to know what they’re looking at. And, although he is occasionally asked why he

doesn’t just take a photograph if he is simply trying to reproduce an image, he is unfazed. “I am

not a huge fan of the ‘red dot in the middle of the canvas’ approach. I consider that type of thing

a modern design element which some people use to complete a certain decor, but to call it ‘fine

art’? Please!” To emphasize his point, Watts cited the later work of Picasso, a self-avowed

charlatan who pandered to the tastes of his fans, and the color-spattering Jackson Pollock. “It

would be easy for a well-trained artist to do what he did, but could Pollock produce a truly great

work of art?” “This is a good time for those of us who like to work this way. There is a swing back

to something that has been lost over the last 100 years, when things deviated from the past.”

Although he maintains that a core group of supporters never left their love of old-school painting,

many younger people are becoming reactionary and seeking to return to art as practiced by the

masters as well. “Realistic art is even becoming hot in New York,” he added, laughing at the notion

—- expressed several decades ago by some of the proponents of the more radical schools of thought

—- that painting had gone as far as it could go and was officially dead. “I’ve decided to make my

mark and stick to my guns. This type of art is so old, it’s new.”