Creemore artist wins BMFA’s Murray Clerkson Award

Creemore artist Jessica Tamlin is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Murray Clerkson Award handed out by the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts, to an outstanding, local, emerging, visual artist with potential for significant contribution to the arts.
Tamlin said there was a time when she was reluctant to call herself an artist but through a process of learning and embracing her true artistic nature, she was in a place where she could apply for the award and accept what others had long known – that she is an artist.
Although she has always loved to draw Tamlin said she struggled with painting, recalling one time when she was so frustrated with the medium that she threw her paintbrush to the ground.
Encouraged by her high school art teacher to pursue the arts, Tamlin studied fine arts at University of Guelph where she specialized in drawing, printmaking and sculpture, before going on to Seneca College to study graphic design. She has continued to work in the arts while raising two children. Tamlin has a home studio and is known for making wood block printed travel maps and stylized maps of local ski resorts.
She said a pivotal moment came when she moved to Creemore six years ago and found an arts community.
“I found myself surrounded by artists, creatives and people that make their way on their own. It is in this time that I have let myself surrender to the title of artist,” wrote Tamlin to the foundation.
Having always wanted to study at OCAD, Tamlin took a chance to take a painting class with Creemore area painter and OCAD teacher Sara Sniderhan, where she learned technique and found her palette. Once she got that, she really began to enjoy painting and hasn’t stopped.
After an ill-fated family camping trip as a child, Tamlin said she wasn’t exactly outdoorsy. It was her husband’s love of hiking and other outdoor activities that pulled her into nature, which is often the subject of her painting. The wall of Tamlin’s kitchen hangs portraits of her family playing in the water and on the trail.
She has adopted a method of using tins to fashion mini easels and portable paint pallets so that she can paint wherever the family’s adventures take them. Tamlin said she often sits and paints while the others are off playing.
Murray Clerkson was a well known local artist with a dramatic flair in his own art. Throughout his own career, he strongly supported new and emerging artists by investing in their work and freely and positively commenting on their achievement.
The Clerkson award recognizes an evolving or emerging artist, not yet professionally established, but who has reached a stage where he/she now possesses a body of work that indicates strength, purpose and commitment. The award is open to artists residing in the South Georgian Bay area, working in any visual arts discipline. It comes with $1,000 and a show at the BMFA’s Simcoe Street gallery. Tamlin and four of the award finalists are showing work there until June 22. For a second year, Tamlin, a new member of Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society, will be opening her home for the Creemore Festival of the Arts this fall. Visit jessicatamlin.com.