Z Marks The Spot

James Zachariah Trimm works deftly, dragging a dribble of paint into the shape of a palm frond. Trimm, or “Z,” as he’s known to friends, has been doing this for as long as he can remember. Although he might occasionally employ a stick, almost all of the fine detail in his paintings is the work of a pinky nail. Trimm is a professional fingerpainter.
Trimm is hard at work every Friday and Saturday night at the Charleston Night Market downtown, alternately chatting with customers, concentrating over an architectural detail in a painting, or scrubbing his hands with a wet rag so he can switch between colors or tasks. An easy smile often breaks over his face as he explains his process. It’s clear he’s in his element.
Once immersed in the art world full-time, Trimm owned multiple galleries in Georgia before the recession of 2008. When pocketbooks started to tighten, the art market crashed … hard. The closure of the galleries and newfound employment brought him to Charleston. After a hiatus, Trimm eventually returned to painting. He’s worked with brushes before, but finger painting always draws him back. Now his art hangs in several Charleston businesses, including Sojourn Coffee in West Ashley, and for the last several weeks has occupied a space at the Charleston Night Market. Trimm supplements his painting income with carpentry work, but is on his way to becoming a full-time painter.
Though he sometimes takes commissioned subjects, Trimm clearly draws most of his inspiration today from Lowcountry scenes. Charleston’s beaches, marshes, wildlife, and architecture all appear in his dreamy yet detailed style.
Trimm’s preferred media are recycled tin roofing tiles, pulled from demolished homes and barns, and Rustoleum paint. The rustic backgrounds and durable paints make the works, always bearing Trimm’s signature “Z,” suitable for hanging either indoors or outdoors.
Often a painting incorporates features of a pitted or rusty tin piece into its overall design, such as the speckled pattern hinting at clouds and stars behind a black-and-white palm tree. “Sometimes friends in construction will offer me ‘new metal,’” or unweathered tin roofing, he says, “but that’s not what I’m looking for.” It’s a mixture of the unusual weathered medium, the finger-painting technique, and a style combining play with precision that gives Trimm’s artworks their distinctive character, offering us a view of the classic Lowcountry through a uniquely tactile lens.
You can see works by James Zachariah Trimm (aka Z) in West Ashley at Sojourn’s Coffee, located in the Northbridge Shopping Center at 1664 Old Towne Road.