James Earl

Jim Earl’s watercolor career is a culmination of influences drawn from his wide range of professional experience in automotive styling, interior design, and architectural illustration, as well as his childhood fascination with drawing and coloring—an interest encouraged by his father, a skilled draftsman.

Growing up in Detroit, Jim developed a strong interest in automobile appearance, which led him to pursue a career in automotive styling. After spending a summer in the student design program at General Motors Styling and graduating from university, he worked at Ford Motor Styling, creating concept sketches for the 1971 Mustang and other vehicles. Following his time at Ford, he spent five more years at two major industrial design firms, contributing to a wide variety of projects including the L1011 Lockheed Jumbo Jet, railroad car interiors, corporate graphics, and sporting vehicles.

In 1972, Jim and his wife decided they wanted a change of scene and relocated to New England. After moving to the Boston area, he spent two and a half years at the New England School of Art as an instructor of conceptual interior design and architectural illustration. At the same time, he developed his architectural illustration and interior design business, producing architectural illustrations for a diverse range of worldwide projects, as well as schematic architectural and interior design work. After a rewarding career in illustration and design, he now devotes nearly all of his creative energy to painting watercolors of Great Lakes freighters, rail steam engines, and landscapes.

Many of Jim’s watercolors have been juried into shows of art societies on Boston’s South Shore, as well as regional and North American exhibitions of the New England Watercolor Society, where he is a signature member. His work has also been represented by galleries on Boston’s South Shore, in Provincetown, Southwest Harbor, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for eight years.