I first saw Jason Forcier‘s art at Piper J Gallery on West River Street in Truckee. Large canvases alive with bold, bright colors and textures jumped off the walls. Forcier is a mixed-media artist whose work is stunning.
Much of his art is inspired by his world travels. Cuba, Mexico and Thailand are a few places that are his current muses that motivate his creativity. Forcier says that traveling to these countries has opened a new color palette for his work.
“After traveling, I’d come home energized, seeing the doors and walls that have weathered effects. I went to Havana and Guanajuato, Mexico, two places where you see a lot of color and people reusing things 100 times over. We were just in Thailand and it was the same thing in Thailand,” says Forcier, who started drawing and sketching at a young age.
Forcier went to school for graphic design but admits that sitting at a desk behind a computer screen wasn’t his thing. When he moved to Tahoe almost 13 years ago, he decided that he was going to focus on his art full time. He set up a small art studio beneath his house. The first place he showed his work was at Coffeebar in Truckee. His partner, Kayla Anderson, a writer for Tahoe Weekly, set up the show. Forcier uses several art mediums to garner the textured effect on his canvas.
“In the beginning, I worked strictly with oil because I liked the way it would blend together, but it took so long to dry that I moved to acrylic. I just started using spackle for texture,” he says. Forcier uses oil, pastels, pencils and markers. He is leaning in and incorporating different mediums this year. He also uses house paint from the hardware store as a base and a lot of tape.
“I just finished a piece last week with old pieces of wood and an old drawer top,” he says.
Forcier loves the way the wood grain adds to his work. His grandfather collected antiques and he uses some of those random antique pieces in his art. His grandmother made patchwork quilts. He says this patchwork effect also influences his art, which he calls mountain abstract. He acknowledges that creating art allows him to travel and do the things he loves.
“It’s freedom, a freedom I learned from the pandemic. Many people sat around and did nothing or complained instead of looking at it as an opportunity,” he says.
A mountain-bike trip to Peru took an unusual turn for Forcier when he got stuck in the country for two months at the start of the pandemic. He used his time to create and sketch. He eventually had to hire a company to return home, but his time there was precious. His sketchbook entitled, “61 Days in Huaraz,” is one of his prized possessions. A large canvas with a mountain silhouette inspired by his sketches hangs at Piper J Gallery.
“After traveling, I’d come home energized, seeing the doors and walls that have weathered effects. I went to Havana and Guanajuato, Mexico, two places where you see a lot of color and people reusing things 100 times over. We were just in Thailand and it was the same thing in Thailand.” –Jason Forcier
Forcier works on anywhere from five to seven paintings at one time, many in different stages of development, mainly due to the time it takes for each piece to dry. He loves painting on big canvases.
His work can be seen and purchased at Piper J Gallery in Truckee, Vivant Gallery in Reno, Nev. and Sol Cannabis Dispensary in New Washoe, City, Nev. He also sells his pieces through three online galleries: Saatchi Art, Singulart and Art Finder.
The future is bright and expansive for Forcier as he creates, evolves and reinvents himself and the mediums he uses for his art. | jforcier.com
