One of the truly cool things we get to show you in the Spotlight Gallery is how talented our members are off stage as well as on! We know how they excel as actors and production crewmembers but they also shine on the canvas.
Case in point. Jarrod Chambers: husband of Lianne Wand, Chair of OLT’s marketing committee (and personally instrumental for ensuring my blogs are properly posted online so you, dear readers can enjoy them!).
Jarrod works at Ford of Canada managing a team of software developers. They work on the Infotainment and Connectivity systems for Ford vehicles, which means making sure they can connect to cellular or WiFi networks to provide the driver and passengers with connected services like navigation or software updates. No, he is not the voice of Ford’s version of the On Star system. Mind you, his voice would probably be perfect for that as he has been an actor at the OLT over the past 25 years, and has helped out backstage and by volunteering at the front of the house. His most recent OLT contribution was as co-producer and performer in the award winning production of An Act of Grace. He has also acted in other amateur theatres including the “other” OLT located in Oshawa. You can figure out yourself what the acronym stands for.
With respect to his art, Jarrod describes it as mostly representational. He does very little abstract work and prefers painting figures, which is why there tends to almost always be people in his paintings. That is not to say that he won’t have fun painting landscapes or particular landscapes at the behest of Lianne. He works largely in oils because they are very forgiving – they take a long time to dry so you can go back and correct things for quite a while. He also does some sketching and will often use a sketch as the basis for a digital work, especially around Christmas card time.
Jarrod experiments with different media in order to see how he likes them and has come to the realization that some are better for particular applications. He will choose acrylic for quick paintings as that it dries quickly and allows for many layers of paint applied over a relatively short time. Sometimes the medium is decided by the project – Hallowe’en pumpkins are a good example of that.
He has been drawing ever since he can remember. Young Jarrod would draw superheroes from comic books, or use one of those Draw 50 Dinosaurs type of books. Later in life, he started to draw portraits in a sketchbook of people he knew or scenes that inspired him. Lately, most of his drawings have been for specific purposes but he will still doodle in the margin of whatever piece of paper happens to be in front of him. So please note that he is not ignoring you, but merely perfecting his craft.
Although he has long loved to draw, he could never quite get the hang of painting. About 15 years ago, he decided that he wasn’t going to be able to learn to paint by himself, so he signed up for a beginning painting course with the City of Ottawa where according to Jarrod, the instructor, Kerry Stothers, was amazing. She taught about colour, light, and shade, and then everyone would spend the class working on a painting of their own. She would come by and advise and sometimes take the brush and show you what she meant. Her class was so good that he (and several other people) took it over and over again. Eventually he got to the point where he felt that he could produce work at home on his own but those couple of years of instruction from Kerry were invaluable.
Talent runs in his family. Jarrod’s two younger brothers are a musician and a screenwriter, sketch and animation artist, respectively, while his mother has also dabbled with painting. Plus his son Max has appeared on stage at OLT and has also done some on-camera and voice work, so he definitely has the acting gene. His daughter Anne also has an artistic bent and will be showing her art, along with her mother Jane Loignon, in a Spotlight show later in 2020.
One of his favourite pieces is “Gato”, a painting of the family cat, now sadly deceased. Working from a photograph of Gato sitting on top of the couch staring out the window, he reorganized the elements of the picture to make sure that the focus was Gato’s head looking out the window. If you follow the lines in the drapery or the lines connecting the tops of the books, they lead your eye back to him. That and the contrast between his dark fur and the light of the window reinforce that he is the focus of the painting. This was one of the first times Jarrod deliberately composed a painting in this way and he was very happy with the results. The actual painting didn’t take too long – Gato as you see him there was done in a couple of hectic hours, and the books took a little more time but also went on pretty easily.
The painting “Waiting In The Wings” is based on a picture of him taken backstage during OLT’s 2011 production of The Patrick Pearse Motel. Venetia Lawless, Curator for the Spotlight Gallery, was in the show and brought her camera backstage during the dress rehearsal. She took some shots while she was waiting to go on, including this shot of Jarrod, literally waiting in the wings. Jarrod liked the whole effect of the figure (himself) standing in the crack of light waiting to go on and captured it on canvas.
And here it is, eight years later!
He has done a few commissions, mostly friends or friends of friends. He generally keeps the pieces that have sentimental value for him and sells the ones that are less personal. For example, Gato will always have a special place in his heart and he just couldn’t part with it. Also several paintings were gifts for his wife and he dare not sell those. That is a wise decision!
Gato, 2011
He used to be a member (and for a while, president) of the Nepean Fine Arts League, and displayed his work in several of their shows and sales. He was also a member of the Ottawa Art Association when they used to exhibit at OLT, so he has actually displayed his work at this theatre before.
Jarrod hasn’t been able to devote a lot of time to painting and drawing over the past few years because of other commitments but he is hoping to get back into the swing of it during 2020 and beyond. His next project is a long overdue portrait of Lianne, then we’ll see what inspiration the Muse has for him. Fret not Jarrod, I am sure that the OLT would love displaying Lianne’s portrait greeting all of our patrons as they enter the theatre.
-Albert
By the way, you can see Jarrod’s art through the run of The Roommate at OLT (January 8 – 25th).