Brighton-Area Artist Spotlight: Jerry Hosier

When he first started to paint 20 years ago, Jerry Hosier didn't know any artists in the area. He soon got involved with Milford Village Fine Arts Association, through which he eventually met Norma Gray, the “Grand Dame of the Brighton Art Guild.”

“She's the person that got it going,” Hosier said. “She's the grandmother.”

Also among the original 30 members, Hosier has always been actively involved with the . A past BAG president, Hosier unfailingly attends the guild's monthly meetings and is a regular fixture at , the guild's weekly summertime gathering.

“It's very important that we support each other. That's what the guild is all about,” Hosier said.

Several BAG members supported Hosier, who is 62, when he was diagnosed with cancer last year. With the help of his wife, Debbie, guild members rallied around Hosier, taking turns driving him to the hospital for treatment.

“It shows you how much people are willing to help,” Hosier, who's cancer is now in remission, said.

Hosier, a self-proclaimed starving artist who grew up in Detroit and who spent time living in various places throughout the country, is a former home inspector. Except for a few odd carpentry jobs here and there, Hosier, who has a home and studio in the Brighton Recreation Area, focuses full time on painting.

Detailed observations of people and nature, Hosier's oil paintings are representations of what he calls “fleeting moments.”

In attempt to preserve the beauty of those brief moments, Hosier, who described himself as a “contemporary realistic painter,” said he often finds himself immersed in a painting for several hours at a time. He works and reworks the painting, adding layer after layer, until the impression is exact, he said.

“It is during this process that I become intimately acquainted with my subject, and ultimately gain insight into achieving my vision,” Hosier recently wrote in a statement about his process.

Much of his work features pastoral scenes from the family farm in Hillsdale where his mother was born and still lives. Other paintings recall people and places from Hosier's travels to California, Mexico, and the Upper Peninsula.

“Part of being an artist is looking for things that inspire, things that alter who you are,” Hosier said.

To see more of Hosier's work, visit his website or find him on Thursday evenings at Art at the Mill Pond, where he sells 8 x 10 inch prints of his works for $50.