Jim Schaefer, Brief Bio

Jim Schaefer was born and reared in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child he spent long summers at the Jersey shore where he felt an intuitive connection with the windswept beaches, the tumultuous surf, the green-grass marsh lands and the star-lit summer skies.

He attended public schools and went to college at the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in architecture with a strong emphasis on studio art and art history. He stayed at Penn for graduate study in painting where he participated in an innovative program based on an ever-changing array of guest critics, rather than a permanent faculty. The program was coordinated by Neil Welliver, the only faculty member in painting. Critics included Rackstraw Downes, Paul Georges, Rosemarie Beck, Elaine deKooning, James Brooks, Brice Marden, Yvonne Jacquette, Alex Katz, Clement Greenberg, and many others.

 He worked for 30 years as an instrumentation technician and technical support specialist and is currently retired, spending the bulk of his time painting and promoting his artwork.