About Larry Jason
A familiar place with a pleasant memory
The subject matter of Larry Jason’s paintings are things you see every day. Using his photography of signs and buildings, automobiles, portraits and clothing, Larry achieves his style by enlarging his photographs and transferring the image to a silkscreen, then printing it on a canvas and painting over the silhouette.
With a BA degree in art from CSU Northridge and a MA degree from CSU Bakersfield, Larry was inspired by artists Picasso, Andy Warhol and David Hockney. Jason has shown his work across the state of California including Bakersfield, Fresno, Santa Monica, Long Beach and Pasadena.
Larry Jason was born Lawrence Alan Jason in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on July 23, 1948. Larry is from a family of educators. At the age of four his family moved to Lead, South Dakota. While living in Lead, Larry‘s mother was his kindergarten teacher. At the age of seven, Larry’s family moved to Taft, California, where he attended both elementary and high school. He also attended Taft Junior College and completed an AA degree. Larry’s father taught English as well as Spanish, French, and German at the college.
When Larry was in six grade, it was the first time students in his small town school were sent to a specialized classroom for art. This art class met once a week with a teacher that taught only art. The teacher was creative and encouraged all the students to explore their artistic abilities. He introduced the students to a variety of art mediums. For example, the instructor introduced students to paint brushes and tempera paint on white butcher paper, magazine collages using scissors and rubber glue paste, and printmaking using small wooden blocks with letters and shapes. Larry soon realized he found a class that he not only enjoyed but was enthusiastic about.
In Junior High Larry took an elective in Wood/Metal Shop that allowed him to be creative using these different mediums. In his junior and senior years of high school, Larry’s art instructors encouraged him to enter his paintings and collages in juried shows, and he received second place and honorable mention ribbons in the exhibits he entered.
After receiving and AA degree at Taft Junior College, Larry was accepted to CSU Northridge where he majored in art. He took different painting and graphic design classes and received a BA degree in Art. Larry later took post graduate classes at CSU Bakersfield including art classes in graphic design and introduction to screen printing. The fact that Larry admired New York artist Andy Warhol inspired Larry to focus on producing silkscreen paintings on campus. Larry did not develop a skill for screen printing overnight. His first attempts at applying printers’ ink with a squeegee across the screen resulted in a mess. However, Larry dedicated himself to the process, practicing evenings and weekends alone in the printmaking classroom until he successfully mastered the art of screen print on canvas.
Larry was employed over the years in the Taft/Bakersfield area where he taught at a child development center and a federal prison. In 2001 he began work at a Bakersfield foster care agency as a social worker where he worked until his retirement in 2018.
Larry has shown his artwork in galleries and museums at numerous venues throughout California. In Bakersfield, California, his work has been displayed at Fister’s Studio, A Frame of Mine gift shop, The Bakersfield Museum of Art, The Padre Hotel, Stockdale Bank and The Ice House Gallery. His work has also shown in The Automobile & Art Gallery in Long Beach, Bergamont Station Art Complex in Santa Monica, Route 66 Automobile Gallery in Pasadena, and Barnes and Noble in Fresno. Currently you can find Larry’s work on display at Bird Dog Arts at the Outlets at Tejon Parkway in Tejon Ranch, CA.
