A celebrated and venerated art professional, Joseph Stephen Wise was the president of Valle del Sur Plein Air Painting Group in Morgan Hill, California, from 2004 to 2006, and he resumed the position in 2015. Amassing more than five decades of excellence in the realm of art, he formerly served as an art instructor at the Museum of Art in Los Gates, California, in 2003, as well as an art teacher at a number of academic facilities, including Gunderson High School, West Valley College, Steinbeck Middle School, Santa Venetia Middle School, Meany Middle School and Studebaker Middle School. Today, he remains a prolific artist, sharing his breadth of knowledge with other painters throughout California.
To prepare for his esteemed career, Mr. Wise pursued a formal education, first obtaining a bachelor’s degree in education from Indiana University in 1963. He followed this accomplishment with a master’s degree in art from San Jose State University in 1966. After gaining hands-on experience in the field, he completed postgraduate coursework at San Jose State University between 1974 and 1980.
Throughout his career, Mr. Wise has worked on more than 500 paintings and performed a number of one-man shows across the United States, including at the Triton Museum and The Granary in California; Mankato State College Union in Minnesota; Washington State College Union Gallery in Washington; and Idaho State College Union Gallery in Idaho. His work has additionally been featured in permanent collections at IBM Corporation, Calvary Community Church, San Jose Museum of Art, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and in a variety of private art collections. Most recently, his art has been exhibited in group shows in the Monterey Bay Plein Art Painters Show and New Museum Los Gatos, as well as a solo show at the Wise Gallery.
Among his notable achievements, Mr. Wise is most renowned for selling an oil painting, “Lion’s Peak,” to the AFTA for $3,500. It was exhibited at the Huntington Retirement Center in Morgan Hill in 2017. In addition, he has received letters of appreciation from Ansel Adams and Millard Sheets, two prominent artists, and his work has been collected by the prestigious actor and art collector Anthony Quinn and respected architect Philip Johnson. Notably, one of his paintings has been featured in Hidden Villa alongside Frank Duveneck, one of America’s great early artists. In recognition of his professional accomplishments, Mr. Wise is listed in multiple editions of Who’s Who in America, as well as in Who’s Who in American Education and Who’s Who in the West.
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