Busacca Gallery

This charcoal life drawing on paper, created by James Wu in one of his drawing classes, comes with its own hand-cut paper mat. James Wu is a world-renowned contemporary drawing instructor who began his artistic career in China. In middle school, his first exploration into art took place on a blackboard with a version of a class newsletter. His art career gained momentum after he met Mr. Wang Naizhuang, a well-known artist in China, who became Jian’s mentor, teaching him drawing and painting. Today, Jian’s work is characterized as impressionistic realism. While he primarily paints in oil, he also works with pastel, acrylic, watercolor, and marker pens. Influenced by masters like Sargent, Picasso (particularly Cubism), and contemporary artist Richard Schmid, Jian has developed his own style over the years. His ability to capture light and his loose brushwork are hallmarks of his paintings. In the studio, Jian works with live models and photo references. He starts with a burnt umber underdrawing, sketching out basic value patterns. Gradually, he applies color, beginning with shadow areas, then middle tones, lighter areas, and finally highlights. He makes final adjustments at the end. For landscapes, he directly applies color but ensures value contrasts are established. His brushes include bristle brushes (brights and filberts), along with the occasional large house brush and palette knife. His color palette comprises titanium white, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, permanent rose, magenta, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, phthalo green (yellow shade), phthalo green (blue shade), and ivory black. Jian Wu graduated from the prestigious Art College of Qing Hua University (formerly Central Art and Crafts College of China) in 1984. Between his graduation and emigration to the United States, he was commissioned for works in five-star hotels, and his works were exhibited in China’s National Art Exhibitions. In 1993, he studied at the Graduate School of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and joined the university’s faculty shortly after. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2000. As a professional artist, Jian has had solo exhibitions and participated in group shows in the United States, winning awards in nationwide professional art exhibitions and competitions.

Jian Wu has had many accomplishments in his career: he is a Master Artist with NOAPS, has won two Exceptional Merit Awards from the International Portrait Competition; NOAPS awards including a Best of Show, Third Place, Best Use of Light and Color (twice) and Best Portrait Award. He has also won accolades for his pastel work, winning First, Second, and Third place awards in the Pastel Journal ‘Pastel 100 Competition’. But for Jian, his most prized accomplishment has been the development of his own personal style of painting. Jian leaves us with a quote from Winston Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” To relate to painting, Jian says: “I believe that those of us who play with colors can paint our way out of any ‘hell’ if we persist”.