By his estimate, James Wagner has been painting for about four decades now. During all that time, he never entered an art competition, not until last month, that is.
“When I was growing up, my dad was a professional artist,” said Wagner, 42. “He painted portraits in his spare time as a side gig while supporting my mom, my sister and I. So I grew up around it. As soon as I could walk, I was walking around with a paintbrush in my hand. I studied art in college, but I never did anything with it.”
After college, the Dallas native began his career in management in the retail grocery field, a 16-year career that took him from Texas to Colorado to New Mexico and eventually back to Dallas.
That’s where he met his partner, Jill Drouillard, a meeting that would change his life in a multitude of ways, including his arrival in Columbus.
“After Jill finished her PhD and applied for (teaching) positions, I kind of put my career aside so she could get established,” Wagner said. “We spent a year at East Tennessee State before she got her job here in Columbus about 2 ½ years ago.”
Since leaving Texas, Wagner has been a stay-at-home dad to the couple’s 5 year old son. Jill teaches philosophy at Mississippi University for Women.
He continued to paint, but it was a chance meeting with another local artist, Andre Ray, that inspired him to enter his first art competition.
“I met Andre at Burns Bottom Arts Festival about a year ago and we became friends.” Wagner said. He does juried shows with art and that sort of got me thinking about it. I looked on the internet for a show in the area and came across the Cotton District Arts Festival. I wanted to get more recognition locally and see how well I’d do, just out of curiosity, I guess. It was just 25 bucks, so I figured why not? What do I have to lose?”
It turned out to be the wrong question.
His oil painting “North Rim Illumination,” a landscape of the north rim of the Rio Grande Valley near Taos, N.M., claimed first place in the juried show, not a bad result for his first competition.
“I was stunned, really, surprised, excited and humbled all at the same time,” Wagner said. “To get that kind of feedback in a juried competition is quite a feather in your cap.”
Wagner’s painting, mostly landscapes painting in oil and sometimes watercolors, draws heavily from the places he has lived.
“No knock on Mississippi or Columbus because they are beautiful, too, but it’s the West — especially Colorado and New Mexico — that influences my work,” he said. “That’s who I am as an artist.”
But art and artists evolve and change.
So, too, will Wagner.
His success at the Cotton District Art Festival secured his first gallery showing, which will be at the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center gallery in January.
“The theme will be my journey and the travels that got me to this point,” Wagner said. “And since Columbus is part of that journey, I’ll be working on painting for the show. One of the things I noticed here were the ginkgo trees which are just beautiful in the fall. I’ve got my eye on one at The W that hasn’t turned yet, so that is probably what I’ll paint.”
Wagner has 10 pieces ready for the show, but needs to finish another 10 by the end of the year.
Winning the Cotton District and landing his first gallery showing has given Wagner not only the confidence he needs, but a shot of adrenalin as the deadline approaches.
“The result is that I’m painting faster and more often,” Wagner said. “This has been a confidence booster for me as an artist.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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