Using acrylic, gouache, and watercolor, Jed Sutter captures his surroundings with astonishing detail, the finished work reminding of a photograph more than anything else. “I’ve never tried to make a painting look like a photograph,” he remarked once in a piece published on Artsy Shark, “but time and again, when I feel I have finished, the work looks quite realistic.”
Most often than not, his paintings center around the urban landscapes of Boston, Massachusetts: the seaside of his youth, the bridges, and the local, aging trolley cars that rumble behind his house. When painting, Sutter relies on source photos that either he or his clients have taken, sometimes combining aspects of multiple photos to create a richer scene.
“I’ll be drawn to a set of colors or an interesting shape or to a scene I’d like to capture, but one that’s a bit off the bell curve for other artists,” he notes. His observations haven’t gone unnoticed, having gained memberships in the prestigious Copley Society of Art in Boston and the North Shore Arts Association in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
But incredibly enough, Sutter began painting seriously only in his mid 50’s, having not picked up a paintbrush in decades and never shown any of his work before. You’d want to follow his creative journey via Instagram.
