Meet Jim Peters | Art Director/Artist – River Street Art

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jim Peters and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jim, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

My career focus on television created a lot of anxiety and stress. Being an Art Director in the News business made me focus on big news stories that were often tragedies and unsettling world situations. An example might be creating a graphics package to cover a shooting or crash. It was all too negative. We needed more joy in our world, and focusing on the bad affected me in too many negative ways.

I knew I could take a canvas, apply oil paint, and make things I enjoyed. The other aspect that gave me joy was implementing the imagination inside to create something that tugs at the viewer to evoke emotion. I didn’t have time to get to that point with my art while working full-time as a manager. So, I quit my job to begin painting. I relished the joy painting gave me. This experience was similar to that of a child realizing that touching paper with a pencil or paintbrush could make a mark that made them happy. Can you remember this as a child? Most people have lost that memory, but I haven’t. When I make a mark on canvas and see how even a slight rotation of a paintbrush with the right amount of paint can create, I become elated!

I understand a business is a business, but if you are experiencing stress and don’t get joy from what you’re doing, what is the purpose other than acquiring stuff? And if you have things, how can you enjoy them if you’re not happy?

So, I started a business that focused on my art. In the process, I realized people could get excited and happy over what made me happy to create. That’s where I wanted to be. And that’s why I started River Street Art.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Like many, I developed an interest in Art by drawing at about five. At least, that’s the earliest drawing I have that my mother kept, and I now have on a wall in our home. A significant difference between me and others is that my passion for drawing remained. Fast forward to fourteen when I received my first paint set for Christmas. It was acrylic, and I never stopped after that. It wasn’t constant, and I was persistent. Take a leap forward to my college years, and yes, I took Art in High School, but I gravitated toward drawing in the form of a drafting class. This interest leads me to Architecture. I attended college for that and started a career working for home builders, Engineers, and the State of Wisconsin, but I wanted more expression of creativity than that career gave me. I had a void. I was interested in fantasy art and researched how others did it. I realized that many used an airbrush to create their work, so I devised a plan to get one. There was a pet store window up the street void of any branding. I approached them to say I thought they needed a sign. They asked me how I planned to do it, so I told them with an airbrush, but I needed money down to start. They obliged. I purchased an air compressor and an airbrush and had my first paying job creating Art. I started doing fantasy art and sold a piece here and there, but my focus and interest turned to aircraft because I was learning to fly. I started doing aviation art. With the airbrush, I realized I could make my painting look real. Once, I submitted a piece to the Experimental Aircraft Association for a contest; they published it on the back cover of their magazine. The result was an affirmation of my Art. Then I got this notion to move to California because they had a lot of airshows throughout the year where I could tour and sell my Aviation Art. It wasn’t all glamour and fun. I worked hard and went back to drawing 7-11’s as a means of income while I did my Art at night.
As I completed pieces, I would have them scanned through a local photographer. The photographer showed my work to a local Art Rep, who contacted me and began selling my work to Ad Agencies around San Diego. It was very lucrative but lasted only a short time when I realized computers were starting to take over the realism industry. Computers could do the realism for concept art of products and provide companies with anything they could imagine. Illustrators were becoming a thing of the past. Or at least, I thought. At the time, I was interested in animation and began to focus my abilities on that. I worked at a local animation house. They did work for some Saturday morning cartoon companies up in LA and several large corporations. A lot of it was hand drawn and on film. After some time there, I got a call from a company in Denver that needed an animator. This company struggled financially at times, and at a point, all of us thought they might go out of business. At that time, 9-KUSA had just purchased a high-end animation computer. This equipment was the same I had just spent time training on and got pretty good at using. They had one major problem. After doing hand-drawn cards and graphics for so many years, the ability of the TV artist to adapt to computers was difficult. They heard about me through the grapevine and contacted me to come over and check things out. They hired me to run their newly created animation department. I took the title of Animation Director and less than a year later had my first of many Emmy awards handed to me by Tom Brokaw at the local Emmy award celebration.
Many years went by, and I remained working in television. I worked as an Art director orchestrating looks for local television graphics and eventually landed at KDVR, channel 31. It was FOX owned and operated, but they sold the station and moved me to their affiliate in Minnesota. From there, they formed the FOX Graphics Hub and moved me to Tampa, Florida. Along with two others there, we created and hired staff to cover graphics for all FOX-owned and operated stations around the country.
All this time, my passion was still calling me to paint. While working in this high-stress high-output job, I tried, but it was challenging to come home to a family and paint in the evening, much less pursue an art career. I finally retired from there at the earliest possible opportunity. I relocated back to Denver and was sidetracked again by being offered the chance to run a creative shop. It was an unfortunate move on my part because I still couldn’t spend time painting. I eventually returned to KDVR for a couple of years, then retired again. I painted in the basement for a while before acquiring another place in Florida. My studio still sits in the basement there while I spend a fair amount of time in Florida. The Colorado mountains call me, though. The beauty of those foothills and mountains is unfathomable. I will be putting them on Canvas.
In the meantime, I continue with my other love, water. Anything water inspires me. Lakes, oceans, rivers, streams, ponds, they all move me. I am now pursuing en Plein air or painting live outside. And when I can’t, I’m developing my skills in the studio with portraits, landscapes, and a mix of realism and fantasy.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There is so much to do in and around Denver. The flat Irons are something to behold, and seeing them in person is awe-inspiring. The Stanley Hotel in Estes park has always been an attraction, along with the many shops and businesses there. And The wildlife there has no match if you want to see them close up. Blackhawk is a fun place to go for entertainment. The Molly Brown House is an experience and has so much history attached to it. Denver sports is on top of the world with its stadiums. No better venues around. Sitting behind home plate at a Rockies game is crazy. You can look over the scoreboard and see the mountains in the background. The sites are unbelievable. And make it a must to get a Biker Jim’s Hot Dog at Coors Field. The Garden of the God’s down near Colorado Springs is an easy outdoor hike that so many should experience. In the winter, the many ski slopes are a thrill and offer the opportunity to experience a sporting nature. REI is an excellent sporting supply shop. Grab a Starbucks while you’re there. Boulder, CO, is a unique and exciting place, including watching Buffalo Sports. And the hiking trails and streams up the canyon provide incredible views. And, for an afternoon Spring or Fall day outside, on a rooftop for a hot toddy, try Rosetta Hall in Boulder.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Some people say things along life’s path that offer encouragement. I am always listening. I hear the voices of the people, but sometimes my thick head gets in the way, and the ideas given take a while to land. For example, what would be the most compelling subject to paint that many would enjoy? Mind you, that question is driven not by the money but by wanting to create something that offers enjoyment to others and gives me joy too. So, who’s the shout-out I can name? It’s to those who use their words to encourage me to continue with my passion. To continue painting. Additionally, my wife deserves a lot of credit for giving me positive feedback regarding the subject matter. My friends and patrons support me by buying my art. And I receive a lot of encouragement from two artists I follow on Social media, Andrew Tischler, a landscape and portrait painter, and Noah Elias, a Disney artist.

Website: https://www.riverstreetart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riverstreetartfl/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimpetersart/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riverstreetart