Jay Cantrell is from a small but cosmopolitan area known as Sherman, TX.  This is a place where several prominent architects such as Mark Lemmon, Frank Welch, and Michael Dennis had their beginnings.

While growing up, Cantrell indulged most of his architectural sensibilities by drawing the ruins of the old Woodmen Circle Mansion, the prairie style houses, and the grain elevators on the periphery of town. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington, and then worked for Ralph L. Duesing, Arch. When obtaining his Master of Architecture at the University of Virginia, he became fascinated with the study of light in architecture as a spatial animator, seen through his thesis project in Rome and in the paintings and buildings he creates.

Upon graduating, he was awarded the Gabriel Prize in Architecture and lived in Paris during the summer of 2009. He focused on watercolors of the Passages, celebrating Paris’ extraordinary light quality as seen through its iron and glass ceilings. He has since returned to Dallas, TX and has finished designing several houses in Park Cities.

In addition to his built work, Jay teaches Architecture at CAPPA School of Architecture in Arlington and has a part-time residential design and rendering practice. He is represented by Beaux Arts Gallery in the design district.  His most recent publication was for a stolen painting in downtown Dallas, featured in PaperCity. For more information, please visit www.jaycantrell.zenfolio.com