Point Pleasant Beach art gallery sells a sticky secret ingredient — beeswax
POINT PLEASANT BEACH - A native of coastal Connecticut, Jim Inzero grew up loving nature and the arts. And he successfully combined those two passions in his 2018 launch of Jim Inzero Contemporary Encaustic Paintings, a Point Pleasant Beach-based studio and gallery featuring Inzero’s tranquil paintings — all created using the unique medium of color fired into layers of beeswax.
Growing up in North Haven, Connecticut, a town located on Long Island Sound, “I was a quiet child who loved to draw and paint and my teachers encouraged me to enter my work into contests,” recalled Inzero, a 51-year-old Brick resident.
The self-described introvert also loved sports and played football in high school, but a broken collarbone just before his senior year derailed his dreams of a future on the playing field. “I always thought I’d be involved in sports in college,” he said, “but the injury forced me to change my path to my other strength, which was art.”
Championed by his high school art teacher and family members, Inzero attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1995.
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“I originally wanted to be an illustrator, but I soon realized that the field of interior design would give me the space to problem-solve, design layouts and be conceptual — all challenges I loved — and my teachers and mentors supported me,” he said. His work at an architecture firm in Baltimore beginning in his senior year of college further honed his skills in the area of architectural drafting.
“By 1998, I was working at that firm full-time as well as at a nearby furniture store, where I met my wife, Lauren, who worked there as a manager,” Inzero said. “We moved to Brick in 2001 because her family lived in Point Pleasant Beach and had property there that they agreed to rent to us so that we could start a retail shop, Stella e Luna, which carried furniture, home products, soaps, lotions, apparel, children’s items, jewelry, gifts and more.”
They moved their shop to its current larger space in town in 2007, with Inzero handling the shop’s back-office functions while still providing interior design and architectural services for a local firm and then pursuing his own venture, I Interiors. But while he loved the work, he said, “projects could go on for years and I missed the feedback and gratification at the end and was ready for a change.”
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Fire, color and wood
Happily, an interesting new artistic path soon presented itself.
“In 2004, during a vacation we took in Mexico, I took a two-day course in encaustic painting for the first time and found it incredible,” Inzero said of the art form, which involves the application of colored pigments to a heated wax medium.
“I loved its use of fire, color and wood and I brought the paintings home with us on the plane and started selling them on the walls of our shop. When we moved to our new building a couple of years later,” he said, “our shop had a 2,000-square-foot second floor where I began featuring my work in a gallery setting. I started selling paintings and connecting with customers, and people began requesting commissioned pieces because I listened well and was able to translate their vision in my impressionistic, encaustic style.”
Based on the joy his paintings brought both Inzero and his customers alike, he launched Jim Inzero Contemporary Encaustic Paintings in the gallery space in 2018.
Today, nearly 20 years since Inzero first took up encaustic painting, “I have a wood shop in the studio and my pieces range in size from smaller 5-by-7 ‘sketches’ to larger works that can span 6 to 8 feet in length,” he said.
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According to Inzero, encaustic painting is a highly visceral and transformative medium.
“It can morph into different things, appearing as a watercolor, acrylic or oil painting based on how you manipulate the wax,” he explained. “By heating and mixing beeswax, fusing liquid-thin layers of wax on wood panels with fire or a heat gun, and applying the wax and powder pigment using different techniques, the medium frees you up to be a truly versatile artist.”
As for his subject matter, Inzero said that he’s always been moved by natural settings.
“Growing up, I had a soft landscape painting in my room by artist Wolf Kahn that I loved,” he said. “I like to be surrounded by things that make me feel good and to create paintings that are peaceful to me, and that typically involves nature,” he said of his works, which often feature horizons, clouds, sand, water and/or other coastal themes and usually take six to eight weeks to create.
“Nature has been my muse, and having my own gallery has allowed me to create things that I’m feeling that week,” Inzero said.
With some 30 pieces hanging in his relaxed and airy gallery at any given time (and the company of their beloved mini Labradoodle, Tulip), “my 5-by-7 sketches are available for $100 to $200 and my full-size paintings range from $800 to $15,000,” Inzero said.
In addition to several celebrities reaching out over the years to inquire about commissioning pieces, “I’ve created single and multiple paintings for private homeowners as well as groups of employees who want to give a gift to their CEO,” he said. “I also did a commissioned series of 10 paintings — two of which were 13 feet long — for the executive wing of The Hilton in Short Hills.”
Eschewing trends, which he says “put you into a box, and I want to create based on the way I feel,” Inzero completes dozens of paintings a year, now often for the grown children of his original New Jersey and New York City-based clients, and sells the originals — no prints — all while treasuring the personal interactions between client and artist.
“I love to talk to people who come into the gallery,” he said. “Everyone gets my time and attention and we make a connection that’s very special. When people ask me to do a commission, I strive to hit it on the first or second swing to ensure that it’s something we’re both happy with,” he said. “That rapport and trust is a big part of my business.”
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'Paint until I can't paint anymore'
Looking ahead, “I’m continuing to grow, develop my skill, and get my art out there so that people know more about me and my work,” said Inzero, who painted 18 pieces as the featured artist in a show entitled “Water, Water, Everywhere,” currently on display at the John F. Peto Studio Museum in Island Heights through Oct. 8.
“I love to affect people with my work, help other artists who are just starting out, and also introduce the medium of encaustic painting to people who have never seen or heard of it before,” he said. “It’s been around forever, but I have a unique technique with it.”
“Ultimately, I love the people who come into the gallery and the response I get from visitors and clients,” Inzero said. “I put positive energy into my paintings and they make people happy when they look at them and I feel that.
"My goal is to be able to paint until I can’t paint anymore,” he concluded, “and that personal connection is what it’s all about.”
Jim Inzero Contemporary Encaustic Paintings
Location: 502 Bay Ave., Point Pleasant Beach
Phone: 732-451-2666
Owner: Jim Inzero
Launched: 2018
Website: www.jiminzero.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Point Pleasant Beach art gallery makes paintings with beeswax
