Jeffrey Vaughn

Photorealistic Oil Painting on Canvas, Framed, Early Spring, Dogwood Tree

2023

Contemporary, Photorealistic, Framed, Oil Painting on Linen, Flowers, Nature Jeffrey Vaughn, from Alton, Illinois, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978 from Washington ...

Photorealistic Oil Painting, Framed in Pine, Aspens at Dawn, Landscape, Trees Jeffrey Vaughn, from Alton, Illinois, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978 from Washington...

This woodland interior captures the shy luminosity of dogwood blossoms scattered across a dim forest floor. Aeling had a lifelong fondness for transitional spaces—the edges of woods,...

In Crabapple, Aeling turns his attentive eye from sweeping horizons to the delicate brightness of spring bloom. The cloudlike mass of blossoms, juxtaposed with the austere verticals of the surrounding trees, demonstrates his ability to balance structure and softness. Although best known for atmospheric landscapes, Aeling frequently explored the intimate evolution of seasonal change. These quieter works echo the patience he learned through years of observation—whether studying the curl of a wave in Kauai or the unfolding petals of a Midwestern spring. Jeff Aeling Crabapple oil on panel 34h x 48w in 86.36h x 121.92w cm JAE020 Jeff Aeling (1958–2025): The Sky Remembers Through Jeff Aeling’s eyes, the landscape becomes a world shaped as much by air as by earth. In works such as North of Las Vegas, NM and Pond Near St. Cloud, MN, he balances the quiet structure of plains and wetlands with skies alive in constant motion. His mastery of atmosphere is unmistakable in Light Pillars (2023) and Light Pillar (2023), where rare optical events turn night into architecture. Even intimate scenes like Crabapple, Dogwoods, and Red Bud find their emotional power under skies that lend the land its shifting character. Aeling’s winters in Hawaii deepened his sensitivity to movement and weather. Surfing taught him to read the rhythm of the ocean, a knowledge reflected in Wave, Kauai (2018), where a breaking wave becomes a luminous wall of force. In Volcano (2023), he channels the islands’ elemental drama, linking fire, vapor, and sky through the same atmospheric vocabulary found in his plains paintings. Though often compared to American landscape painters like Church and Bierstadt, Aeling’s work engages modernity in subtle ways. He began his paintings with the camera—driving for hours to capture a fleeting alignment of cloud, light, and terrain. In the studio, he removed all traces of people or infrastructure, preserving the landscape as a pure, uncontrollable presence. This blend of tradition and contemporary practice allowed him to honor the past while speaking clearly to the present. Together, these works—whether a crashing wave, a blooming tree, a volcanic plume, or a column of winter light—form a portrait of the world as Aeling experienced it: vast, luminous, and alive with change. The Sky Remembers is both a tribute and an invitation to see the land with the reverence he carried throughout his life. Jeff Aeling (1958-2025) Iowa City, IA Represented in Chicago by Gallery VICTOR Education BFA, Painting and Printmaking, Kansas City Art Institute – Kansas City, MO School of the Art Institute of Chicago – Chicago, IL Solo Exhibitions 2016 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2015 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2014 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO 2013 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2012 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2011 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2010 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Richard Demato Fine Arts Gallery - Sag Harbor, NY William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2009 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2008 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2007 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2006 Tory Folliard Gallery - Milwaukee, WI William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2005 Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL 2005 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2004 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO 2003 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2002 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Perimeter Gallery - New York, NY 2001 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 2000 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO 1999 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM Elliot Smith...