Meet the Artist
Jack Wray
Drawing/Painting
Joaquin Raven, born Jack Wray in Seaside, California, is a Mexican American, award‑winning oil painter based in Tigard, Oregon. Joaquin is a nature lover, adventurer, husband and father of two. Working in an abstract realism style he is best known for detailed and colorful portrait paintings of flora and fauna. He creates portraits of wild animal people to provide companions for human people that don’t easily feel connected with other humans. He discovered painting late in life as a way to process grief after his father’s passing. Sometimes images come from dreams, other times they are carefully chosen to fit a narrative, as in his solo show at the Dali museum in Monterey, California “Progression of the North American Diet.” He has shown in numerous juried shows in galleries along the West and East Coasts and regularly attends festivals and markets all over the North American West. After relocating from Monterey, California to Portland, Oregon in 2019, he became a member of the Portland Saturday Market which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024.
Materials and techniques: Joaquin works from reference photographs in the studio, using oil paint on canvas. Both brush and palette knife are used in layers for subjects, and impasto methods are used for backgrounds and settings.