Portrait of an Artist – Jim Londagin: Beauty and precision

I’m inspired by the grace, beauty and simplicity of American life at the 19^th to 20^th turn of the century. My collection of illustrative paintings entitled ‘Remembering America’ seeks to evoke fond memories of simpler times and pleasurable events – the day-by-day experiences that made American life great! – Jim Londagin

 

By TIM WILCOX
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

“The devil is in the details.” Without a specific context, that’s a puzzling idiom. But let’s replace it with a more accessible declaration: “The delight is in the details.” Its meaning will become clear as we paint a portrait of artist Jim Londagin.

Seated on a bench just outside the entrance to the Mountain Arts Gallery overlooking Lake Arrowhead, Jim has an unmistakably artistic look about him, including black-and-white hat and loafers that are neatly in tune with other color-coordinated elements.

He chats amiably with his visitor, who’s dressed more haphazardly. When asked to share a biographical sketch, Jim suggests, “I’ll start with my professional and art background, if that’s OK.” Perfect!

“I studied architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and really enjoyed the design classes,” he says. “But I hated the math and science part of architecture, so after two years I transferred to UCLA.” There he earned a degree in design from the school of fine arts, graduating in 1981.

Before grasping his diploma, Jim actually began work with Arcadia-based Decor Concepts. His portfolio called for detailed design of restaurants, from fast-food eateries to full-service establishments. He persisted and prospered for about 10 years, designing hundreds of restaurants across the country.

“Doing space layout and graphic design plus color and material selection was challenging, creative and fun,” Jim says. His work was spotlighted in prominent restaurant-design magazines. It also was rewarded with promotions to design director and creative director for Decor Concepts. Ultimately he was tasked with establishing and directing a new marketing department for the company.

When the firm was purchased by another business intent on making sweeping changes, Jim segued to a corporation in Torrance that staged trade shows for major automakers. His specific responsibility: managing all of the U.S.-based events for Nissan and Infiniti. “It was a $45 million annual account,” he notes.

After six years, though, the commute became too much. So Jim opened a large-scale florist, gift shop and home-décor store in Claremont. Providing flowers for weddings was the business’s primary source of income, with the local DoubleTree Hotel being its No. 1 venue.

A strange road

Prior to selling that entrepreneurial enterprise due to the financial downturn of 2008, Jim stumbled onto what he describes as “a strange road.” He saw an ad for a floral-design teacher at Chafee High School in Ontario. He got the job and subsequently was also hired to teach marketing at Claremont High School and, in Chino Hills, Ayala High School. The Claremont post morphed into teaching what the school called “virtual enterprise” classes, which taught students every aspect of running a business.

According to Jim: “It was one of the most creative things I’d done to that point, because I was able to enlist all of my past experience to teach these kids what the real world is all about and how to run a successful business.” Saluted as Claremont High School’s 2019 teacher of the year, he keeps in touch with many of his former students.

Jim retired shortly after receiving that unexpected honor. He and his wife, Debbie, had already moved to Lake Arrowhead. “We settled here 16 years ago when our first granddaughter was born and we both wanted to be close to our daughter, who was a teacher here at the time,” Jim shares. “We had a cabin here when our two kids were little, loved it and now can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

The couple has been married for 43 years. “We met at First Baptist Church in Pomona, and for me it was love at first sight,” Jim shares. Then, with a hearty laugh, he adds, “For Debbie it took about a year.” They have a daughter and son, Kate and Jay, and now two granddaughters, Molly and Emily – both Rim High students and dance enthusiasts who perform in The Nutcracker every year.

These days, besides being a devoted husband, father and grandfather, Jim is an accomplished artist. “I’ve loved painting since early childhood, beginning formal lessons at age 11 and continuing with art classes through high school and into college,” he says. “During those years, I did mainly oil painting and a lot of drawing.”

But, as Jim puts it, “life took over, and I became busy with my career and family.” As a result, he observed a 30-year break from painting. Then, on a memorable Father’s Day in 2009, “My wife and daughter surprised me with paints, brushes and canvases, telling me, ‘You’re going to start painting again!’”

The allure of acrylics

Jim did exactly that and shifted his focus from oils to acrylics. “Oils are much more fluid and ‘blendy,’ while acrylics are more plastic and harder edged,” he says. “I’ve learned to love acrylics, because you can do so much more with them than you can with oils, especially all the fine details that I now incorporate into my paintings,” he says, adding that “because acrylics dry so fast, you can paint over quickly and begin doing the detail work almost immediately.”

Also reflecting on the versatility of acrylics, he adds, “You can go anywhere from a heavy brushstroke as in oil paintings all the way to something that looks like a watercolor and everything in between.”

Then, characterizing his art in a few words, Jim continues: “My work incorporates both vintage and current-day images, blending a variety of inspirations into each painting. My style is influenced by artists and illustrators such as Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell, but incorporating a more contemporary treatment.”

The artist works primarily from photographs he’s taken in the U.S. and Europe. Mainly of houses and people, the paintings are exquisitely detailed. In fact, they could be described as “photorealistic.” But that’s actually a misnomer, because every single work involves an essential subjective element. As Jim puts it, “There should always be some interpretation and brushwork so that it looks like a painting.”

Still, the details are stunning: architectural elements, billowing clouds, light and shadow, varied vegetation, wind-blown ripples on water, reflected images, individual faces, swirling costumes and more. “It’s especially challenging when you’re painting a portrait, because people who are familiar with that person want to see what they know about him or her. When I paint someone I know, I’m able to capture his or her personality.”

Because his art is so painstaking, replete with minute details, Jim notes that his paintings typically require weeks to complete. “It’s hard for me to get started sometimes due to all the effort that I know lies ahead,” he says. “But once I’ve made the commitment to begin, I invest myself fully in the process and thoroughly enjoy it.”

While Jim confides that he doesn’t “paint for accolades,” he admits that “I love it at the gallery when people buy one of my paintings or prints. That means they like it enough to put it in their own home. For me, that’s a great compliment.”

Politely pressed once again to provide basic biographical information, Jim reveals that he was born in Whittier, then raised in Covina. And while his artwork is predominantly visual, he’s also written three novels. But that’s a story for another time.

Jim Londagin’s paintings are on display and for sale at the Mountain Arts Gallery on the lower level of Lake Arrowhead Village. Contact him at djlondagin@gmail.com or visit www.jlondagin.weebly.com.