FRED

A native of the village of Stembert, Belgium, Alfred A. Jamar has lived and worked in Brussels, Paris, London, Frankfurt, and New York. These days he makes his home in Charleston where he is known simply as Fred.

Fred has been painting passionately for over forty years, capturing the landscapes, street scenes and cityscapes of Europe, New York and now Charleston. Even at the busiest in his corporate life he found the time to capture the view from his Wall Street office between the demands of managing JP Morgan’s global credit risk.

He lists as his influences Van Gogh and Modigliani for a sense of color and taste, and Maurice Utrillo and Suzanne Valadon for their streetscapes. He was personally most influenced by the tragic (and little known) French painter Bernard Buffet. The influence of Buffet is most evident in his portrayals of people and in his distinct series of clown portraits which are primarily reserved in his own personal collection.

Fred’s style is impressionistic, and always in his favorite medium of oil. He continues to experiment with new textures and techniques; discarding his brushes for only a knife and a trowel, and composing as he applies the paint, with perhaps just one or two penciled lines on the canvas to guide him.

Since his youth in the village of Stembert, Fred has had the need to paint. It is not seeing or exhibiting a finished product that is his goal; it is the process, the smell of the oils and turpentine, the texture of the canvas. It is the act of painting that drives him. As a young merchant marine he would use tarps on the ship as canvas.

He now truly has the time, painting everyday and completing over 70 works over the past year. His distinctive works have quickly become recognized and repeatedly awarded locally. He has had several solo exhibitions at local galleries and he has been selected as an exhibiting artist with the Charleston Artist’s Guild. His unique depictions of local cityscapes with their characteristic dark skies, and “bubble trees” have met with critical acclaim, and swift public demand.

In 2002 he won the Cooper River Bridge Run Design Competition which gained him wide exposure, was juried into his first Piccolo Spoleto exhibition where he has since become a popular exhibitor. Fred is a regular exhibitor and award winner in the Charleston Artist Guild. In 2006 he won the contest for Save The Light, memorializing the Morris Island Light house. Represented in Charleston exclusively at The Wolf Gallery and Charles II Fine Art Gallery in the heart of the French Quarter.