Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Clare.
Hi Josh, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I studied art at BYU-Idaho, and lucked into one of the best art programs I could have possibly entered. After graduating with a BFA in Illustration, I took a car full of paintings to Astoria Fine Art in Jackson Hole and got into my first gallery. I taught painting and drawing part-time at BYU-Idaho for three years until my gallery sales exceeded our expenses and we’ve been surviving on fine art ever since. My beautiful and encouraging wife stays home with our five children who are the pride and the joy of our lives.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It’s been bumpy and windy, but it’s always felt smooth to us, we’ve seen so many miracles and blessings along the way!
A classic story of struggle that we tell often is that the month we graduated we did taxes online without the aid of an accountant. We really didn’t make much money that year, but I was doing graphic design on the side so we were ‘self-employed’, and self-employment tax ended up emptying our bank account completely. As we walked home from the school library together, my wife put her head on my shoulder and cried… oddly I didn’t fail like a failure and I wasn’t scared– I tried to encourage her by reminding her how great it was that we had enough money to pay taxes. 🙂 We still laugh about that night and are grateful for all the miracles that have happened since as God has allowed me to follow my passion and provide for my family at the same time.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a fine artist specializing in landscape but I paint figurative work, animals, still-life, cityscapes, pretty much everything. I’ve worked hard to be able to paint and draw what I see as faithfully and truthfully as I can. I’ve spent a lot of time working directly from life, out of doors, and that has improved my ability to see more completely than anything else I’ve done to improve. I feel like my time spent outdoors has given me a sense of color, design, and variety that is unique. I continue to learn from the beauty and perfection of nature– nothing inspires me more.
My favorite works are passionate, poetic paintings that are filled with a sense of light and truth–and that’s exactly what I strive for in my own work. Sometimes I hit it sometimes I don’t, but the journey has been joyful and it’s so exciting to look forward every day to greater understanding, clearer vision, and artistic growth.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
My career has been nothing but one long risk. It’s still a risk and will be until the day I die. so yes, I’m a risk-taker of the first order. Good things are hard to do and doing them takes courage. Risk is a part of the good life.
When we talk about risk most of us immediately think of financial risk, but the most important risks we take in life are spiritual, emotional, and moral–it’s when we do things that are unpopular because our conscience demands that we’re taking the most important kind of risk–that’s the kind of risk that allows us to be changed from selfish into unselfish creatures. As an artist, every painting I do involves taking that kind of chance and a daily striving to curb my fears and act in faith.
Pricing:
- My prices range from $1500 for a small piece to $30,000 for a large painting
Contact Info:
- Website: joshclare.com
- Instagram: @jclareart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jclareart/
