Lehighton artist Jay Davenport is celebrating 15 years of art and instruction in Carbon County.

He held a gathering recently at Davenport Studios’ new headquarters in the former DePue insurance building in Lehighton.

Davenport said he started painting at an early age.

“My grandfather got me interested in it; he raised me,” he said. “I went to college to be a wildlife illustrator, (but it was) kind of being taken over by computers so I just went into fine arts and I went under the instruction of a mentor and did an apprenticeship with him for about four years.”

Davenport, originally from Stillwater, Luzerne County, said he realized early in life he wanted to open his own studio.

“All I do is art; this is all I do and I love what I do,” he said. “This is the best job in the world.”

His enthusiasm and education in arts continued as he later earned an associate degree in painting and illustration, then completed a four year apprenticeship in Realism and Trompe-l’Oeil, which uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions.

He has participated in many exhibits across the country, winning the Bosque Conservatory Silver Medal and numerous awards in Artist Magazine Annual Competition.

His passion for art has been illustrated in many publications including 2007 Strokes of Genius, The Best in Drawing. In 2015 Jay won the Oil Painters of America Animal Award of Excellence, Signature & Associate Division for “Keep Your Eye on the Ball.”

Using humor in his work, Davenport says on his website that his intention is for the viewer to “step back once in awhile and observe and even laugh at ourselves.”

Davenport not only paints, but teaches. He accepts students age 10 and older.

“I teach photo realism art,” he said. “On my days that I don’t teach, I’m painting for galleries all over the country.”

Davenport said he started with one student and now has more than 30. He said he accepts new students but there is a waiting list.

His curriculum starts with basic shapes and uses white and black charcoal, before graduating to oil paintings.

“Everybody’s kind of on a different level; it’s a mixed crowd,” he said. “Once you go through the curriculum, you can paint what you want.”

Davenport gets gratification from watching his students grow.

“From the teaching aspect of it, they tell me they can’t draw a stick picture,” he said. “(And then they go) to drawing a photo realism picture, and it’s great to see how far how they’ve come over time.”

Davenport said he paints for galleries around the country.

“It keeps me in tune teaching because I have to keep going over and over the same things all the time,” he said. “It helps me to be creative, and it helps me to be better because I have to do it every day.”

After offering personal instruction in fine art at his studio in Jim Thorpe, he took his work to Tijera, New Mexico.

Some of the local artists who have studied with Davenport were included in the Carbon County Creative Arts Fund’s Art With a View exhibition in spring. They include Cheryl Popek, Veronica Walck and Susan DiFluri.

He said he has no plans on retiring and that he never thought he’d make it this far.

“I’m very proud of how far I’ve come, and I look forward to doing this for numerous years,” he said. “I just want to keep doing this as long as the good Lord will have me do it.”

Davenport Studios is at 499 S. Ninth St., Lehighton. To sign up for lessons, call 570-952-5663.

For more information, go to jdavenportart.com.