James A. Hamilton, III

"A painting must communicate a feeling, a sense of place or time, or some quality greater than the literal description of a place or object."
-James Hamilton III

James Hamilton III started painting as a child in Buffalo, New York. Early influences were painters of the Great Depression, including Grant Wood, Charles Burchfield, Reginald Marsh, and other 20th-century American realists. Hamilton paints in the realist tradition of Thomas Eakins, as well as the Pennsylvania Impressionist school of landscape painting. His work derives from scenes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Nantucket, Massachussetts. Not always a literal representation of reality, his canvases focus on the effects and qualities of light, shadows, and reflections as abstract relationships. Hamilton's work includes prints and multi-color woodcuts that emphasize the abstract elements of a scene.

Education and Training
Art Institute of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, 1950
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1952-1955, 1959-1960
B.A. Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1972-1974
J.D., Law School, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1974-1978

Teachers and Influences
Morris Blackburn, Jacob Landau, Edward Redfield, Francis Speight, Walter Steumpfig, Franklin Watkins

Connection to Bucks County
Hamilton lived in Bucks County from 1960 to 1969. He returned to the area in 1994 and presently lives in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
In partnership with his wife, Laura M. Rizio, Esq., he established the law firm of Rizio and Hamilton, PC .

Major Group Exhibitions
Annual Art Exhibition at Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 2002
Artsbridge Members Show, Stockton, New Jersey, 2003
Philadelphia Sketch Club, Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003

Major Collections
Central Bucks School District
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Major Awards
Ware Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1955
Sonnenschein Purchase Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1955
Anne K. Allison Prize, Annual Juried Show, Woodmere Art Museum, 2003