Artist ProfileJean Perry |
View from Bear Lake Road Oil Painting |
CLICK ON LINK ABOVE FOR MORE ORIGINALS. "I have always wanted to paint and draw and was fortunate enough to begin my studies at age 5 with Saturday lessons at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. I continued summer art classes until I began college at the University of Colorado. It was at this time in my life that I began painting abstract, non-objective work. I continued this style and some sporadic lessons through the early years of marriage and raising four children. Sometime after moving to Steamboat Springs, CO, in 1980, I decided to make a commitment to my love of art. I knew that I didn't want to stay with abstract expressionism. I signed up for a plein-air workshop at a dude ranch near Steamboat. The fun and excitement of being there, painting nature as it is, was the beginning of my painting career. Today I still insist that my paintings must come from personal experience. I have no desire to paint historical pictures of someone else's life. My goal is to simplify the large masses and arrange them in a good design using the light, color and values. I want to communicate the emotions I am feeling about that particular place and time. I want to do all this with the least amount of strokes and detail that is necessary to tell my story. Landscapes seem to dominate my work but I also enjoy painting animals, still life and portraits. I am drawn to water and the changing effects of the reflections on water." Expressing a fleeting moment in time with the use of light and shadow, Jean Perry's paintings are a chronicle of the environment that surrounds her. Since her years as a Fine Arts Major at the University of Colorado, Jean's style of painting has evolved from abstract, non-representational work to a loose expressive style that blends expressionism and relalism. The subject matter is usually Colorado and Arizona landscapes. Jean relies on outdoor, on location painting whether she is traveling abroad as a member of the Plein-Air Painters of America or here in her native Colorado. Jean, also is a member of the Oil Painters of America and has won numerous awards. |