Jeanine Jackson creates support base for portrait painters

In the words of her former art instructor, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jeanine Jackson of Old Greenwich is an artist who paints portraits. She is also founder and president of the non-profit Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists (CSOPA), established in 2002 to promote the classic art of portraiture through education.

Earlier this year, Jackson and her co-chair Nancy Stember from Westport presided over their annual portrait festival, "Faces of Winter," at Stamford UConn, where portrait artist Kinstler was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The weekend also offered a juried exhibition and educational symposium, "The Frank Reilly Method and Beyond."

More than 65 artists participated in the symposium, which featured the teaching method of the noted American instructor Reilly on anatomy and drawing from life.

"From what our artists tell us, there has been an upswing in demand for portraits of classic realism, a trend in art in general," said Jackson, who has studied and lived in Florence, Italy.

At Jackson's "Faces of Winter" portrait show the work of 75 portrait artists attested to Jackson's findings.

The portraits represented a variety of mediums and were chosen from 300 submissions from all over the U.S, with the majority from the tristate area.

At Jackson's portrait festival a number of artsists spoke during the award ceremony, including John Howard Sanden, Igor Babailov, M. Shane Neal and Thomas Nash.

A festive dinner followed with many of the attending artists talking shop and trading cards.

Jackson explained how she came to create CSOPA in 2002 while living in New York City. "After 9/11, I was a member of the American Society of Portrait Artists, now called the Portrait Society of America (PSA), which has various state chapters."

She decided to create a Connecticut chapter after moving to Old Greenwich. Half a dozen members are from Greenwich, she said, including Lucille Schur, Sofia James, Edward Salazar, Ruth Newman, and David Luchak.

Jackson has also been tapped by the PSA to be their Connecticut ambassador, and last year she was elected to the Greenwich Arts Council's Board of Directors.