Royston Nave Memorial

The Oldest Museum in the Crossroads

VRMA: The Nave Museum is Proud to Present:

J.Howard

Visual Expressions: Seeing Things Beyond the Eyes and Into the Heart

January 15 - March 7, 2021

Drawing is the most basic and perhaps the most instinctive of all two-dimensional art forms.  A drawing can serve as a preliminary sketch for future work in another medium.  Drawing can become a process of articulating an idea. Drawing can also be a complete work within itself. The variety of drawings makes it almost impossible to categorize the medium, especially when you add the variety of materials artists use to produce drawings.  Drawing can only be described as the most unrestrained of all mediums. 

Drawing can be the most direct way of bringing what is in mind on to a chosen surface.  An artist can enjoy the sheer spontaneity of drawing.  When a pencil drags across a piece of paper or a pastel traces over a piece of canvas, it captures my thoughts directly and records the slightest movement of my hand.  My goal is to produce a complete work of art within a sensual and rhythmic pastel drawing, possessing all the detail possible in the 1970’s style referred to as Hyperrealism. 

Art is often perceived as a way of detachment from reality, a key to unlocking some hidden meaning in the environment. This is not entirely true for art genres like Hyperrealism, where the line between reality and art is practically erased. Hyperrealism is considered an effective advancement of Photorealism of the 1960s; however, the newly developed style still contains some subtle differences from its predecessor. The Photorealists aimed to reproduce photographs as precisely as possible so that the human eye could not distinguish between the original and the work of art.  As a Hyperrealist, the goal is to be a purist in the technique. I strive to take the technique further, developing ways to include a narrative, charm, and emotion into a drawing.  I never want to leave it void of “personality.” 

But that “there is a great deal more to color than what meets the eye because it communicates.”   Classically trained in oils at a very young age, she remained focused on drawing and 2D animation, eventually working for the studios.  It was there that she developed a more intense love for tricking the eye of what it sees with hand-drawn images in Hyper-realism. 

J. Howard utilizes the intricate detailing of hyper-realism to present images through organic soft pastel drawings on canvas. She believes that as an artist, she must delve beyond just recognizing the colors present for their inherent qualities and incorporate them so that each drawing goes beyond the natural depth of field for photographic quality. There is a strong desire to ignite emotion and provoke thought as an artist and as a therapist by using art as a therapeutic stimulant for communication to reach a deeper level of healing. Coupled with an even deeper desire for detail, it is evident in her work that the goal is to reach the viewer through what is represented in her unique style.  As 2016 Hunting Art Prize Finalist and Purchase Award Winner; 2017 National Emerging Artist selection; 2018&2019 American Art Awards Winner; 2018 Cowboy True Best of Show (Drawing); 2018 International Illustration Award; 2019 Best of the Best’ 2020 Inspirational Contemporary Artist; and 2021 Texas State 2D Artist Finalist, her work has received many more awards in, both, national and international arenas and has been published often. Currently featured in Art Reveal Magazine and Art Quench Magazine, her work is exhibited across the country and various arenas. Please visit to learn more.

Receptions are held Thursday nights before opening

to the public and are for paid members & guests only