This week I am honored to feature local artist Jennifer Williams. Jennifer is an intrical part of the success of Clark County Open Studios and an advocate for other artists. Her work beautifully represents the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Misty mountains, rivers, and waterfalls. I think you will be drawn into each of her paintings…finding them calming and restorative. This is what Jennifer said about her work.

My work addresses nature's resilience, cycles of regeneration and our relationship with it. Growing up in the Cascade foothills, my paintings portray the landscape in a state of change and reference the Pacific Northwest where the sky and water are constantly moving.

In these uncertain times, I have never been more thankful to have the comfort and focus of my studio. As artists have always done, we work through our experiences, be they joyful or fearful, by making art. In my latest series of paintings entitle “Nature’s Grace”, I want to share the sanctuary of nature’s solace with the hope it lends comfort and peace of mind. Nature’s power to renew itself, also holds the power to renew us.

 When I am painting, my aim is not for the landscape to look real but to feel real. I strive to capture nature’s tranquility and its ability to settle our thoughts as we let go of our worries. I want to paint how it feels to breathe in the cool mist of mountain air, and the meditative calm of sitting beside a river, listening to the sound of water.

As a process painter I have a routine of working, but I am always experimenting.  Getting lost in the process is the key to creating something new. The painting will take on a life of its own if you let it and trusting this idea allows me to paint everyday.

Working in mixed media, I build the surface layers with thick textures of paper and acrylic paint. Sanding and carving back through the surface the composition evolves. This physical process reveals under layers and I embrace the accidental, which gives energy and life to the work.

I begin each piece with a map but my work isn’t about a specific place, it’s about our connections to place. I often think of the map as our mark on the landscape and the lines appear as roads. Other times they feel more natural, like roots or veins of the earth.

Compositionally the map lines are often only noticed viewed close. Although they are subtle, they add an important layer of pattern, rhythm, and energy inviting the viewer to find their own meaningful connections, where we are not detached from the greater web of life but a part of it and interdependent.

Let us always remember, for all of nature’s strength and resilience there is also a fragility to life’s balance.  May we care for and protect what we hold sacred.

You can find more of Jennifer’s work on her website and on instagram.