JESSICA VAN DAAM

Raised in Providence, R.I., Jessica Van Daam was exposed to art from early on. She was home
schooled in her family household with an art school on the third floor. She took numerous art
classes, and many of her childhood photographs show her with a paintbrush in her hand.
During her upbringing, Jessica also seriously studied equestrian training and competitive
jumping with the intent to make that her career. At the age of 15, her equestrian career was cut
short by a serious riding accident. Her injuries ended her hopes of competitive riding and steered
her to focus more intensely on her artwork. At the age of 16, then living on her own, Jess made
the tough decision to sell her horse equipment to pay tuition for art classes.
At the Rhode Island School of Design, she studied drawing, painting, illustration, faux
finish painting with glazes and hand coloring of photography. At Brown University, she studied
portrait drawing. Under private instruction, Jessica further studied watercolor painting, stained
glass design, computer graphic design and photo software.
After several amateur group shows, Jessica found an old mill building in 1998 on the
outskirt of Providence and renovated a space into her first live-in studio. There, she worked on
painting for the first time as a full-time profession.
In that studio, she painted what is now one of her most recognized paintings, “The Last
Supper,” a 20-foot by 6 1/2 –foot depiction of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous scene with
contemporary musicians in place of the Apostles.
Jessica unveiled “The Last Supper” at her first one-man show along with a full studio of
other paintings. “The Last Supper” is now on display at a Providence restaurant.
Living and working in her loft space, Van Daam Studios, Jessica held several other
shows and began to establish herself as a serious artist. Then in 2000, the mill building was torn
down to make way for a new Home Depot, prompting her to re-assess and move on.
Jessica stored her belongings in 2001 and move abroad to Holland, her mother’s
homeland, to maintain her Dutch passport. She apprenticed in the city of Haarlem, with De Roo
& Sainthill, one of three makers of museum-quality gilded frames using Medieval methods and
materials. Also in Holland, the Netherlands government designated Jessica a “working
professional artist.”
While in Europe, Jessica also worked in clay with Hans de Bruin in France and studied
Anthroposophy at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.
After making numerous new paintings, working with new material of the Old Masters,
such as hand-made gesso made with rabbit and fish skin glue, and in mixed medias with glass
granules, Jessica returned to New England in mid-2004 to re-establish herself in America.

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