We had the good fortune of connecting with Jane Jones and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jane, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I am an artist who is a Denver native. I love living here and consider myself really lucky to have been born in the place where I belong. In my first trip through college, I studied Biology and Chemistry thinking that I would work in medicine. I had probably decided that that wasn’t my path before graduation, but I finished the degrees anyway. I learned to have a deep respect for living systems, microscopic to ecological. I loved the elegance and balance of them and how well they are made to correct themselves. After creating a couple of creative businesses, I decided in my 30’s that I truly wanted to be a painter, so I went to art school.
One of my teachers said to always paint what you know best and communicate like you are screaming for “help”. A few of the things that they forgot to mention was that being an artist would require a relentless desire to work, more courage than I had ever summoned before, a serious sense of humor, and endless tenacity. Fortunately, that describes me and the last thirty years of my life.
Those are some of the qualities that have made me a successful artist. The others are my two mottos. The first is, “no try, no get” or in other words, if I don’t try something, then it for sure won’t happen, but if I do try, it just might. The second is, “If someone wants to close a door/opportunity on me, they are welcome to do so, but I will not do it for them.” Especially in the early years of being an artist, and having to have a “day” job, sometimes it was hard to take rejection after rejection after rejection and sometimes I got very discouraged and wanted to quit trying. But as an artist, you cannot let rejection and frustration stop you. I always really believed in the message in my art of honoring nature, so that kept my passion going when times got tough. I wasn’t in this for me, rather it is my passion for the beauty, fragility and power of nature that keeps me fired up.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My paintings are an extension of my reverence for nature. When I was young my grandparents took me all over Colorado camping and fishing. I didn’t like camping, or fishing, but I loved being with them. They taught me how to see the beauty of nature and to appreciate it. Those lessons, and my education in biology and the appreciation of the elegance of living systems, and the 1970’s edition of Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet all influenced my deep reverence for nature. Every one of my paintings is an expression of that.
I paint flowers for several reasons. Aesthetically I love color, and the interaction of light with the colors of flowers mesmerizes me. I choose to paint bold and powerful flowers because I want people to stop and notice them and their presence and see them as an extension of nature. They can be used in very expressive ways to mimic human emotions. Flowers are fragile, and powerful, and beautiful making them great ambassadors for nature.
Except for orchids, all of the flowers that I paint are from my gardens in Arvada. My husband and I have developed and cared for our gardens for 29 years so that I can have the flowers that I want to paint. This has created a very strong connection between me and my flowers, and they offer endless inspiration.
I use an old master’s technique of underpainting and glazing to create that interaction of petals and light. I start by painting the flowers with colors that are very light versions of their real colors and then paint transparent layers of color on top of those. The optical experience is that light passes through the transparent layers, then bounces off of the white in the bottom layer, and the viewer then sees light that has passed through color, like a traffic light. It makes the colors glow with light that seems to be within them. That way I can imitate the light passing through the real flowers.
An exhibition of twenty-five of my paintings are touring museums nationally. The title of the show is CULTIVATING THE DUTCH TRADITION IN THE 21st CENTURY because I use symbolism, much like the 17th Century Dutch painters, but the symbolism is all mine, and refers to The Climate Crisis. https://www.janejonesartist.com/ The exhibition is currently at Brookgreen Gardens, Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina until November 15, and then in 2023 will move on to Chicago and Michigan.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When friends visit the restaurants, we take them to are Yak and Yeti (Indian and Nepalese food) in Westminster, Watercourse Foods in Denver, and Native Foods in Boulder. (Both are Vegetarian/Vegan). They are the best restaurants that we know of that have a variety of vegetarian choices. Depending upon our visitor’s interests, we would go to the Denver Art Museum, or the Denver Botanic Gardens. We always take friends to Fantasy Orchids in Louisville which is a grower and seller of many kinds of orchids. The beauty and exuberance of the flowers is amazing.
And we love taking people to Evergreen Lake, Echo Lake, and Rocky Mountain National Park or other parks in Jefferson County to walk, hike and picnic. Overnight stays in Steamboat and Vail are always possibilities or even over to Glenwood Springs. Most of our friends are nature enthusiasts, and not so big on being in cities.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The most important decision an artist makes is who they are going to spend their life with, especially their closest partner or spouse. My husband and best friend, John has helped and supported me in every way possible. My career is our career. By support, I don’t mean financially, I mean by generously taking over all cooking and shopping activities, making the frames for my paintings, and doing all of the shipping, and keeping my spirits up when I have been knocked down, and celebrating the good times together.
I had been thinking about going to art school full time when I was in a bookstore and listened as one lady gave a glowing review of a book to her friend. I looked at the book, Portrait of An Artist: The Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe, and decided to give it a try. I didn’t really know who she was, didn’t particularly like her paintings, but read it anyway. I found myself on those pages. I have little in common with her, except that her soul spoke to mine and let me know that I HAD to try becoming a fine artist.
After that, John and I made significant changes to our lives so that I could go to art school full time.
While I was there, I met a teacher, Jim Valone, who taught me how to think about art, and how to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be. He was a tough teacher, but supportive, and believed in me. That mattered a lot to me.
I started marketing my paintings and had my first solo show before I graduated. I was 20 years older than most of the other students and had to hit the ground running, so I did. After that first show the rest of the year was terrible; I acquired more rejections than I ever could have imagined. “NO”, seemed to be the response of the world to my paintings. But towards the end of that year someone came into my life and suggested that I try getting into a high profile, prestigious gallery in downtown Denver (this was when there were several wonderful galleries in that area). I kept saying “no”, I’m not good enough yet, and this person kept nipping at me to give it a try. (I will always be thankful to her for her “nipping” and repaid her a couple of years later by adopting a wonderful dog that she was unhappy with. A double win for me.)
In December of that year, I thought, “Fine, let’s just get this over with, get the rejection, and move on with a different plan in the new year. Two days after I mailed that portfolio, I received a phone call from the owner of that gallery asking me if I could bring in a few paintings. I wanted to say that I would be there in 15 minutes but decided to play it cool and deliver the next day. When I arrived, all she said was to ask me to leave them for a few days. Two or three days later she called and asked if I would be willing to do commission work for Marriott Hotels! I nearly shouted “yes”, and then asked if she would also represent my paintings, and she said “of course”.
The following month she introduced me and my paintings and a couple of other artists to the Denver market, and I got a full page write up in the Sunday arts section of The Denver Post. I did commissions for over 2 years, got a lot of practice at painting, painting things I never would have thought of, and learned to paint a lot faster. The pay was terrible, but it got me out of my “day” job, and into a great gallery that sold everything I painted. I will always be grateful to Kyle Belding for those opportunities.
I lost some friends who couldn’t deal with my new commitments, but the good ones and some new ones have stayed with me and given me so much encouragement over the years. They have shown me respect and understanding when my life did not look at all like theirs’ and have been there for all of the important moments and for the times when I needed a hug. Their friendship has meant the world to me.
Website: https://www.janejonesartist.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneJonesArt
Image Credits
All are John Q. Gaddis