HUTCHINSON GALLERIES
BIOGRAPHY
James F. Hutchinson, Brighton Reservation, FL, ca. 1960
Photo: Artist personal collection
"Colors came to the eye of Jim Hutchinson in ways that the rest of us didn't see until he painted them with the touch of an old master. Then, they enlivened a canvas and enriched our perspective on the world. His works kept the disappearing beauty of natural Florida alive bringing form and color to visionary truths about our heritage."
-Al Burt
Florida Author and Journalist
A master of American landscape painting
Hutchinson has long enjoyed a reputation as one of America's truly great impressionist landscape artists. When viewing a Hutchinson painting, one can almost smell the campfire, hear the grass rustling, and taste the Indian fry bread in the cooking pan. His images provide a visually-compelling, historical record of not only of Florida's indigenous peoples but also of the state's wild back country which remains threatened by human encroachment. Hutchinson has earned collectors from all 50 states, Canada, Europe, South America, Japan and elsewhere. He often receives commissions to depict the natural wonders of the Great State of Florida, and of the State of Hawaii, where he also maintains an art studio.
BIOGRAPHY
1950-52: Attended Palm Beach College and Florida State University.
1952-1953: Joined the U.S. Navy.
1954: Attended New York School of Illustration.
1959-65: Lived among, studied and painted Florida’s Seminole Indians on Brighton and Big Cypress Reservations.
1966-71: Received an Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant, with matching funds from private contributors, for fifty paintings depicting the history of Florida’s Seminole Indians.
1974-75: Lived in Normandy, France while working on grant. Studied landscape Impressionism and cultural representation sketches.
1978: University of Miami featured Hutchinson’s grant work in a one hour documentary entitled, “Dawn to Dusk”.
1975-79: Served on Governor Reubin Askew’s Council of Indian Affairs.
1980: Governor Bob Graham presented Hutchinson’s Portfolio of the Seminole War Leaders (lithographs) as gifts to dignitaries during his official visit to Europe.
1983: Governor Graham presented Hutchinson’s “Evening in The Glades” original painting to Norway’s King Olav in exchange for an authentic Norwegian Viking ship. The painting resides in the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway.
1986-89: The University of Miami’s Hutchinson collection was loaned to the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee and divided into small floating exhibits circulated around Florida’s public and private institutions.
1986: The Miami Heart Institute commissioned Hutchinson to paint a thirty by three and one half foot mural depicting South Florida’s Everglades entitled, “A Day in South Florida”. The 10 panel painting now resides in the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art in Daytona, Fl.
1998: Moved to the Big Island of Hawaii where he studied and painted the natural beauty of Hawaii and the Hawaiian people.
2011: Returned to his home in Sewall's Point, Florida. He was inducted into Florida’s Hall of Fame.
1986: The Miami Heart Institute commissioned Hutchinson to paint a thirty by three and one half foot mural depicting South Florida’s Everglades entitled, “A Day in South Florida”.
Today it belongs to the CiCi and Hyatt Brown Museum's permanent collection.
The CiCi and Hyatt Brown Museum in Daytona Beach is the home of
A Day in Florida
a mural which measures 3.5 x 36 feet and features 10 painted canvases depicting a day in from dawn until dusk.
Please see click below to a PBS special featuring the Brown Museum and their great collection of Florida themed art.
Capturing majestic views and heritage of Florida
In 1966, Hutchinson received an Arthur Vining Davis Foundation grant to produce a total of 50 paintings depicting the lives of the Seminole Indians. To fully immerse himself in the subject matter, he and his wife moved onto into a Seminole community on the Brighton Reservation near the northwest shore of Lake Okeechobee where they remained for six years.
Hutchinson's introduction to the Seminoles came at a time when the tribe had not yet fully engaged mainstream society. He produced the first paintings of tribal elders and their families at then-remote camps in the Everglades–capturing this traditional culture in a time of rapid disappearance.
ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS
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University of Miami, Miami, FL
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Florida State Museum, Gainesville, FL
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The Jupiter Town Hall, Jupiter Island, FL
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Bath Club, Miami Beach, FL
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Riviera Club, Miami, FL
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Robinson Gallery, Miami, FL
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Tequesta Gallery, Tequesta, FL
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Blakeslee Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
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Fort Pierce Art Gallery, Ft. Pierce, FL
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The Rod and Reel Club, Miami, FL
ART IN PUBLIC SPACES
High Point View
Sewall's Point, 1969
In 1969, the same year as James and Joan Hutchinson built their first home on the south end of Sewall's Point, Hutchinson captured this view of the South Eastern shoreline of Sewall's Point. Only a few homes were on the lagoon side of the peninsula at the time, which offered Hutchinson unobstructed views toward the St. Lucie inlet and to the "spoil island".
The large size oil painting can be seen at Town Hall in Sewall's Point, a town that Mr. Hutchinson has called home for 70 years.
Detail: ANNIE TOMMIE, Oil on canvas, Private collection, FL
COLLECTORS
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HRH King Olav’s Royal Family, Oslo, Norway
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Senator George Smathers, Washington DC
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Congressman Paul Rogers, Washington DC
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President Harry Truman’s Little White House, Key West, FL
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Jupiter’s Town Hall, Jupiter, FL
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Senator Bob Graham, Washington DC
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The Rybovich Family, Palm Beach, FL
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Burt Reynolds, Jupiter, FL
Florida Artist Hall of Fame
James Hutchinson was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2011. His work can be found in the permanent collection of Miami's Historical Museum of Southern Florida, The Society of Four Arts (only living artist to date) in Palm Beach, The Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art (his mural “A Day in South Florida” is in the dedicated entrance to this largest collection of Florida themed art in the world) in Daytona, The Historical Museum of Southern Florida in Miami, The A.E. Backus Museum in Fort Pierce, and many other venues statewide and nationally.
His work has been exhibited at Florida museums and court houses, including the Florida Governor's Mansion, the Florida Capitol, Brighton Seminole Reservation, Norwegian National Museum in Oslo, James Hutchinson Foundation of the The Lowe Museum at the University of Miami, and the Hawaii Preparatory Academy Isaac Art Gallery on the Big Island Hawaii.
Certificates of Authenticity
We are receiving an overwhelming number of requests for Letters or Certificates of Authenticity, for which we have set up the following guidelines:
We request that you send us the following images of the work;
• Overall image including frame
• Detail image of Signature and Date (if any)
• Images of any possible markings on the back of the canvas and frame.
Price for each Letter of Authenticity is $150 USD.
Please send requests by email to kelly@hutchinsongalleries.com
