MEDIUM: Painter

STUDIO LOCATION: 80 at 20 Vernon Street

Website: www.janesherrill.com

Instagram: @janesherrillart

All of my artwork is about energy, movement and change. I'm interested in how opposites exist simultaneously and how we live with inconsistencies. I think of my task as documenting the wondrous with paint and brush. As a young adult, I spent my days wandering through pine forests, around ponds, and out to the ocean. My intention was to get lost in my surroundings, becoming one large mind, hearing and seeing. When I got lucky, I was rewarded with a wide perspective. Seeing each individual tree in simultaneous sharp focus, hearing every pine needle fall at once, I experienced all the details. There was no sense of background. Each detail was as important as any other in making my paintings. My intention is to recreate that state of mind. I use tiny brushes and lose myself in details, trying to paint each droplet of water so every inch of my painting is flowing, creating an abstract surface, rich in detail that coalesces into a compelling seascape as you stand further back.

In 2010, I embarked on a multiyear project celebrating the beauty of our world in paint. My interest is not in the extremes, but in the everyday, what we naturally pass and often ignore as we move through our lives. I photograph environments that interest me and use my photographs to inspire paintings using acrylics, mainly on wood panels and Yupo. Next, I pivoted to trees, a subject I continue to explore in paint, sculpture, and installation. I've been creating a forest of trees that rise to about eight feet. To grow this forest, I work with a mixture of media including acrylics on wood panel, Yupo, Dura-Lar, and adding real branches and other nontraditional materials. I've been thinking of the tree as a form of Noah's Ark because it carries and sustains Stains so many life forms, including our own.

Most recently, I've been working on layered abstract drawings using micron pens on translucent Dura-Lar. I trace aspects of my environment such as shadows, nicks and scratches on my studio wall, dripped paint, and patterns on my floors. As I work, I add layers of Dura-Lar to the surface and trace markings from lower layers onto the top. I used translucent Dura-Lar so you can see down through the layers to view the whole drawing at once.

This past year, I began mapping an old messed up sheetrock wall adjacent to my studio door. I draw directly on the wall using micron pens, blending stumps and erasers to trace all the nicks, scratches, and holes. I call this project diary of a Studio Wall.