Berkshire-based artist Jim Schantz has been painting the Western Mass landscape since he moved to the area in 1982. Schantz is best known for his staggering land, sea, and skyscapes that frame and share emotion as well as outdoor scenes. His work confronts the viewer with the sublimity of nature. Sometimes subtle and tranquil, sometimes tempestuous, Schantz’s paintings ponder through the depths of human feeling, each eliciting an immediate, almost primal reaction. Although influenced by a Romanticist appreciation for the greatness of nature, and a hint of Fauvist color-boldness, Schantz’s art never capitulates to gloom or agitation. Portraying mood with variations in light, he renders strong emotion, concealing and revealing in turn through careful layers of oil paint, through the coloration of each cloud and the twist of each rivulet. Schantz’s work imparts his vision, instilling in any observer the admiration and reverence for nature that he so tangibly experiences.

Schantz studied at the Hornsey School of Art at the Middlesex Polytechnic Institute in London and Syracuse University in New York, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in painting (1977). After attending the Brooklyn Museum School and then the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Schantz went on to attain his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of California – Davis (1981). He has exhibited internationally and throughout the United States. His works can be found in many public collections, including the Berkshire Museum, Center for Spiritual Life at Emerson College, Lowe Art Museum, Syracuse University, the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts, Nelson Museum, U.C. Davis, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Skidmore College, Simon’s Rock of Bard College, and University of Massachusetts. Schantz’s paintings have been featured in exhibitions at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, the Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, the Albany Institute of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum and the Berkshire Museum.

EDUCATION:

1981 Master of Fine Arts, University of California, Davis, CA

1980 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, MA

1978 Brooklyn Museum School, Brooklyn, NY

1977 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Magna Cum Laude, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

1975 Hornsey School of Art, Middlesex Polytechnic Institute, London, England  

SELECTED PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS

Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY

Arno Maris Gallery, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA

Atrium Gallery, Simon’s Rock of Bard College, Great Barrington, MA

Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

Binney Art Gallery, Wilbraham and Monson Academy, Wilbraham, MA

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

California State College, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

Fairbanks Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA

Ghetto Museum Terezin, Terezin, Czech Republic

Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis, CA

Hayward Arts Center, Hayward, CA

Heritage State Park Museum, Holyoke, MA

Leighton Studios, Banff Art Centre, Banff Alberta,

Canada Lowe Art Museum, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

Memorial Union Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA

Normal Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY

South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA

Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA

Teikyo Post University, Waterbury, CT

The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA

The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA 

University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, WI

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA