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Sunday, July 06, 2008 |
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| About
Jane Cress Edgar |
| For Jane Cress Edgar, art became a serious
pursuit nearly three decades ago. Her paintings and drawings were
for many years autobiographical record, visual representation of
some of the many places she has lived - West Virginia, Virginia,
Oregon, Colorado, Maryland - and the people and family she has
loved. At other times of great stress and pain, painting and ceramic
work has been therapy. The total concentration required was a means
of escape from obsessive thoughts, and the results constituted
an exciting record of healing. Sometimes painting is simply an
expression of pure love of what she sees, a meditation on loveliness
or interesting form. |
| During
her many years of non-art academic study, raising a family and
the "professing" of French and Spanish, Cress Edgar also
worked at making art. She considered herself largely self-taught,
but while teaching languages at several colleges, she took advantage
of formal art study - completing eleven studio courses and various
workshops throughout the years. |
| Today
Jane Cress Edgar is grateful to be able to paint full-time in her
stone cottage studio in Grand Detour, Illinois. She is working
now in three main directions: 1. her "nurturing series" -
exploring the use of acrylics in figural paintings depicting gestures
of human caring, 2. flower forms and still-lifes, and 3. landscapes
and historic homes and buildings. She does, however, like to keep
all options open, for subject matter and medium, so that each painting
is an exploration: "I wonder how that will turn out in a painting!" |
| Whether painting
in joy or anguish, Cress Edgar stresses that, for her, it is serious
work, as well as passion, and the process of most paintings is
a long one. "Fourth of July", for example, gestated two
long years - going through various concepts and design ideas, then
took four months in the painting. "The image had to be dynamic
enough to express my idea of the energy and blossoming of the Village
of South Holland, where the painting will reside." |
| Except when working
in a plein-air mode, her process involves a lot of time looking,
studying and thinking about choices, as well as the actual painting. "A
painting develops, it is not born full-blown. My favorite paintings
are often those where I did not at all anticipate the final result." As
a result, she usually has several paintings "simmering" on
easels at any given time. |
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Cressart |