James W. Rhoads.

James W. Rhoads, or “Jim,” was born in 1945 and reared in small lumber towns in Oregon. He was the middle of five children in a minister’s family, and was always interest in drawing, especially horses, while growing up. His father was an American Baptist minister who served small rural churches in Oregon, Montana, and Idaho.

Jim became formally interested in studying art in 1969 while attending seminary. He met an important Southern California artist, Claude Ellington, while serving as a youth minister at a Presbyterian church. Jim was first introduced to portrait art when Claude asked him to model for his portrait class. After several sessions of modeling, Jim asked Claude what it would take to get on the other side. Claude responded with, “just some charcoal and drawing paper.”
That began Jim’s journey towards a vocation as an artist.

In 1970, Jim graduated from seminary and was ordained with the American Baptist Convention. He served in a special ministry of chemical dependency as a Clinical Pastoral Educator in the Alcoholism Service of Long Beach General Hospital. During his early ministry, Jim developed a passion for the creative arts, theology, and ministry. Partly for therapy and partly for the love of the arts, Jim began studying art with Claude. For the next six years, Jim studied art with Claude 3 and 4 nights a week. Claude taught in the classical art school style through the adult education program in West Covina. Jim studied “Still Life Drawing and Painting,” “Life Study and Figure Drawing,” “Anatomy for the Artist,” and “Portrait Drawing and Painting.”

By 1975, Jim developed into an accomplished artist. He received a number of private commissions, and began entering his work in various shows. He won numerous awards for his portraiture. Over the years he has attended several portrait workshops with prominent American portrait artists. The most significant of these artists is John Howard Sanden, one of America’s premier portrait artists and instructor at Art Students League.​​​

Jim has focused his artistic career on portrait drawing and painting. He works in oils, pastel, and charcoal, and has a highly developed sense of color, values and form. Claude called him a “natural born painter” from his understanding and use of paint. Jim’s focus on portraiture is due to his love of people and the human spirit which the human head expresses so well. He goes beyond rendering a likeness, to capturing the essence of the person. Jim’s portraits capture the spirit, personality and mood of the subject.

Jim has taught portrait drawing and painting for Alhambra Adult Education from 1992 to 1999 and Claremont Adult Education from 1999 to 2012. With the closing of art classes in adult education, Jim continued to teach privately.

Portrait painting is an avocation for Jim. His vocation since 1970 has been in the treatment of chemical dependency and more recently eating disorders. In 2018, he retired and now devotes himself to his art work.