Annette Jimerson (born 1966) is an American artist who works on a wide variety of media. However, she is most widely known for her whimsical and prolific painting abilities, both realist and abstract. Primarily painting in acrylic and oils, she also does watercolor works, with subjects ranging from still life, landscapes and portraits to abstracts. Aside from painting she also works in pen and ink, colored pencils, and sculptures. Her work as been described as “incredibly lifelike, reviving and breathtaking” (Weems Art Gallery). She was accepted into the Memphis State University at the young age of twelve, winning a scholarship with University Art Chairman, granting her entry before the required age of sixteen based on her artistic talents.
Jimerson also writes and creates illustrations for children’s books, an occupation that started as a “hobby”and grew from there.
Jimerson discovered her artistic abilities at the age of seven, and has been developing her artistic skills ever since, branching off into a variety of media. It was her early age fascination with drawing eyes with detailed eyebrows, eyelids and colors that brought attention to the skillful young artist. When her mother, Jessie Jimerson, took her and her art work to the Memphis University Fine Arts Department, the chairman said that they had “never seen anyone so young paint with such experience.”
For the next several years Jimerson was accepted into several galleries during her travels across the United States, and featured in many art shows selling many paintings, gaining newspaper and news station coverage with several different press releases, including Channel 7 News, The Perspective and the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Damon Hitchcock, the art professor at San Diego City College, who had 24 years’ experience teaching, once gathered the whole drawing class of 33 to watch Jimerson work, stating she was “the most prolific artist he had seen.”
Jimerson is the mother of three daughters, the eldest being Jessica M. Jimerson, then Tiffany Jimerson, and Angela Jimerson the youngest. Other noted family members include brother Benjamin O. Jimerson-Phillips.
