Jim Stackhouse lived in the right place at the right time if you had the desire to become an artist and Jim did. He took advantage of all

that the Saint John art community had to offer.

He was born in 1924 on the west side of Saint John and attended La Tour and New Albert schools where the teachers encouraged artistic ability.

 

He attended private art lessons which were available from Miss Holt at the top floor of the city market. He was a friend of Miller Britain who lived just up the street from him.

After elementary and intermediate school he attended an outstanding program at Saint John Vocational school , where local artists and facilities in the area supplemented and enhanced the school program. There were talented teachers such as Vi Gillett, Julia Crawford, Ted Campbell, Miller Britain and Avery Shaw. Jack Humphrey was a great influence in interesting Jim in the media of watercolors.

 

Jim enlarged his horizons by his experience in the navy during World War 2 . He started as a signalman but was chosen, because of his previous art school experience to change over to a special branch doing instructional drawing for radar installations and gunnery control

While in the Navy he started a comic strip called “Stacks; Pusser Humor” which was distributed throughout the Canadian Navy. Also, there were many a fellow seamen's bag with Jim's artwork on it.

 

After Navy service, he went to Toronto where he learned the skills of the Commercial Art World. He also taught figure drawing in the evenings. He kept up his watercolor painting in his spare time. On a trip to the James Bay area he produced 40 watercolor paintings which were sold in Toronto .

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After 6 years in Toronto and having started his own studio with a partner, Jim decided to return to Saint John .

 

Jim first worked for the Evening Times Globe and Mail and was the art director of the fledgling CHSJ-TV. He is best remembered for the drawing of the Loyalist Man and the newspaper illustration for the Empty Stocking Fund of the two waifs looking in the window at Christmas. He might also be remembered as the host on the television series “Kids and Questions.” A first kid's Quiz show in Canada

 

He eventually set up his own business with John Todd which was known as “Todd and Stackhouse” and eventually became “Stackhouse Studio”. Several of his symbols won International awards, one of which was the ‘b' for the Harbor bridge.

 

Jim's art work, commercial and fine art, intertwined and was known throughout the province. He designed the “open door symbol” to represent the “equal opportunity” initiative, promoted by Louis Robichaud. He also designed the bottles and labels for Barbour's color coded spices, the Rocca symbol, the flying W for Wasson's wishes you well twenty four hours a day, to name a few. He designed the covers for the Atlantic Advocate magazine for a year.

 

He was continually producing paintings, some of which were made into lithograph prints and are in many homes, hotels and offices. Two waterfront landscapes done in 1964 “ Partridge Island ” and “Below The Falls” were made into prints and over 1000 were sold. One hangs in Canada House, London .

 

He was appointed chairman of the New Brunswick Design Council implemented by the provincial government. It was newly established to encourage better industrial design for the province and offer consulting services.

 

Stackhouse Studio prospered until Jim suffered a severe stroke in 1973. He decided to retire and paint full time from his home. Stackhouse Studio was acquired by Wayne Fulton and became Fulton Graphics.

 

All his life he was experimenting with different media and a variety of subjects and styles. His retirement allowed him to do this with vigor. He displayed in the galleries in Saint John and Fredericton .

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He had 4 main exhibitions. The first was in May 1975, in the Little Gallery of the N.B. Museum There were 25 works. They consisted of watercolors and acrylics and were scenes of Saint John and the surrounding areas depicting a variety of ideas and familiar parts of the local scene such as Partridge Island , sections of Saint John West, the harbor and streets of the city. The second exhibition was at the Morrison Art Gallery in June.

 

The third exhibition was in 1988 at the Impressions Gallery of Fine Arts in Saint John . ”Summer on the River” included 24 original watercolors showing the moods of the river from Jemseg to the Bay of Fundy . Jim's fourth main exhibit was in the Lynn Kottler Galleries in East Manhattan , New York., where again he displayed acrylics and watercolors.

 

He was commissioned to produce watercolors for the 1986 Port Calendar, under the sponsorship of the Port of Saint John and the Saint John Port Development Commission. The calendars were given out as gifts to port officials and members of the shipping industry. A watercolor reproduction of one of Jim's paintings was commissioned for the cover of the Saint John Telephone Book.

A painting of Jim's was chosen by Air Canada and a reproduction was displayed on their cross Canada flights to represent New Brunswick .

 

In his later years he donated many of his paintings to charitable auctions in Saint John

  

Jim was presented the N.B. Arts award in 2005

 

Jim Stackhouse died January 25 th , 2008

 

A suggestion to the reader: When you look at his paintings perhaps you can catch a glimpse of what Jim himself said he was aiming for…economy of line, simplicity of form and to capture the essence of the scene.

 

Written by Jim's wife, Jo Stackhouse 2009