Oil painter Jon Houglum has been honing his craft for more than 50 years, focusing on nature, still life, and more.
Born and raised in Minnesota, then relocating with his family to Florida, Houglum moved to Macon County in 1996. Houglum and his wife, Carolyn, first visited Franklin while he was helping his friend build a garage onto a home in Otto.
“We did some sight-seeing, and by the time we were on our way home to Florida, we had a contract on a place in Iotla Valley,” explained Houglum. “The only way they’ll get me out of Macon County is feet-first. As an oil painter, why on Earth would I leave? I was born with an artist’s heart,” he said.
The youngest of four boys, Houglum was too young to handle the work of his family’s farm on which he was raised, leading him to pursue his gift in the arts. “I was also born with rather severe dyslexia; I didn’t learn how to read until I was in fourth grade. The rest is history,” stated Houglum.
Houglum studied at the University of Minnesota, obtaining a degree in art education.
“I graduated in 1972, but I didn’t know how to paint. The prevailing philosophy was ‘paint what you feel’; well, what I felt was confused. I didn’t learn anything about painting, but I had a really good drawing instructor.”
In 1973, Houglum was introduced to oil painting by an artist from the University of Alabama, which prompted him to leave behind his previous medium of acrylic paint. “Essentially, I’ve been a painter ever since,” Houglum declared.
Sharing skills
Houglum has spent his career not only selling his work but also sharing his talent with others, offering several classes and lessons. He occupies a space at the Cowee Arts and Heritage Center, with some students learning from Houglum for more than 17 years.
“For lack of a better term, I have a fairly gratifying following of painters,” he said.
Offering classes between Highlands and Cashiers, some of Houglum’s students are local, while others travel miles to learn.
“I have year-round students who are residents of the area, and I have seasonal students who come up beginning in May through September.
“When I was teaching at the Macon County Art Association, I had three people with their master’s degree in painting. They had experienced the same lack of instruction that I had in college and took three lessons from me just to learn my technique,” said Houglum.
“As a teacher, the most gratifying moment is when I see the light go on in the eyes of a student. When all of a sudden, they look at a tree they painted and they truly see it for the first time in their life. This transforms their entire perspective of simply looking.”
Houglum said he has been “blessed” with a good education and enjoys not only teaching but also continuing to learn. During his journey as a painter, he also studied under a Dutch master painter from 1976-1980. And, for the last two years, he studied portraits and figures at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis.
An absolute gift
Artists often encounter challenges when painting.
“The most difficult thing for me has been rocks. I have gone back to paintings over and over, trying to get rocks to look like rocks. Painting rocks has been challenging. The breakthrough was when I quit trying to paint portraits of individual rocks and opted for ‘rockness.’ When I learned to do rocks with ‘rockness’ —the essence of rocks in color and value—I will step back and let the rocks tell me to fill in their design.”
Out of the many paintings Houglum has created, he has one favorite. While his family was picking blueberries on top of a knob in Burnsville, N.C., he set up to paint plein air, which means in the open air.
“I look up, and I see a man that looks like Moses, seemingly coming out of a cloud. We said hello, and he told me that he was a Catholic Monk who needed time off. After talking for about 45 minutes, he tells me he’ll be on his way, and a cloud just envelops him. He absolutely disappeared, and I am convinced I was talking to an angel,” Houglum revealed.
During their entire conversation, Houglum painted, and when he rejoined his family, they had not seen the man and Houglum never saw him again.
“I’ll never sell that painting,” he said. “If I can be very frank, how can I not enjoy being in what I perceive to be God’s will for me. I was meant to be an oil painter and teacher, and being here in Macon County is an absolute gift. How could I not feel gratified and fulfilled?”
Houglum exhibits his work in several places. His art is displayed in two galleries in the Outer Banks: one in Ocracoke and one in Nags Head. His most productive gallery, however, is the Gallery Zella in Bryson City, selling more than all the others combined. In fact, the Smoky Mountain Railroad and the entrance to Smoky Mountain National Park brings into the gallery much traffic.
In Highlands, the Summer House Furniture Store showcases and sells his work as well. He also has pieces hanging at the Macon County Art Association’s Uptown Gallery.