Born in Seattle, Washington, Jack Wemp (born 29th November, 1925) was an artist whose painting styles kept on changing; starting from the Depression era, it moved to expressionism, and then to the contemporary art styles of the 60’s. In the last thirty years of his life, he used the realist style suggestive of the Hudson River school. His father moved the family to Vancouver, Canada at the beginning of the Great Depression. Encouraged by his loving and artistically talented parents, Wemp started drawing and painting at an early age and art was always his favorite school subject. And he was lucky that in high school, he had a very professional and talented artist for an instructor. Though art as career appealed to Jack at the time, but he felt that he should pursue a more stable career.
During his holidays, he worked on a large Half-Diamond-One cattle ranch as a cowhand. This experience led Wemp to the University of Alberta which was an agricultural college, but after 6 months he went overseas to England as a volunteer for service in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. When the Second World War ended, he was appointed by his commanding officer as a staff artist. As he was working here, his passion to become an artist grew stronger and stronger. Wemp graduated from Olds School of Agriculture in Alberta, where he studied advertising and art at the Art Center School, the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts, and the California School of Art.
