Born to a working-class family in Pennsylvania in 1965, Jeff Surret has always enjoyed working with his hands and involving himself in creative endeavors. An art teacher in high school served to facilitate his entrance and interest in the art world, and by the time he graduated high school, Surret had earned a full scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design where he studied illustration and art history. After finishing university Surret traveled in Japan for three months where his passion for landscape art developed even further. He then worked as a freelance commercial illustrator, a job in which he was able to lend his creative eye and hand to what otherwise might have been a bland environment.

Surret’s work exhibits a combination of irregular shapes and soft brushstrokes, using natural colors and muted tones to lend a surreal dimension to his landscapes. He talks about art as a puzzle: “Images are like puzzles that I can assemble – not true to nature where everything is random, but as I’d want nature to exist.”