Creighton Block Gallery and New Abstract Mixed Media Paintings
I'm pleased to announce new gallery representation in Big Sky, Montana!
Here is the ad that will be in Mountain Outlaw Magazine...
Five Newly Released Abstract and Mixed Media Paintings
ALL SOLD!
8" x 8" Mixed Media and Multi-Layered Acrylic Paintings
MORE TO COME!
SAVE THE DATE!!!
A Decade of Art - Woodbury Art Museum
Opening Reception May 15, 7-9PM, Orem, UT
In conjunction with
Art of Our Century a juried exhibition
Many thanks to my generous collectors for loaning me their collected works for this ten year retrospective!
Current Exhibitions
Springville Museum of Art, 94th Annual Spring Salon, Springville, UT, April 25 - July 7
"Me and My Friends", 40" x 40" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic Glass
Desire Lines, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City - Until May, 26.
"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic Glass
SAVE THE DATE!!! A Decade of Art at the Woodbury Art Museum
Upcoming - A Decade of Art - Woodbury Art Museum!
A Brief Review of the Out West Art Show and Sale...
SAVE THE DATE!!!
A Decade of Art
May 15, 7-9PM, Artist Opening Reception, Woodbury Art Museum, Orem, UT
In conjunction with Art of Our Century a juried exhibition
Many thanks to my generous collectors, in advance, for allowing me to borrow nearly 95% of the work making up this ten year retrospective.
A Brief Review...
The Out West Art Show and Sale was a success!
SAVE THE DATE! I will be back again next year in Room 262, March 20 - 23, 2019, Great Falls, MT.
Come see some one of the largest gatherings of western and contemporary artists.
Along with all of the wonderful sales and patronage, I am excited to announce in the very near future, new gallery representation!
I was delighted to see "Sublime Walden" find a home at the beach!
"Sublime Walden", 32" x 32" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic
"Tangerine" was collected by some new admiring fans during the C.M. Russell Museum Auction.
Live auctions of any artists work will always be a nail biting experience for the artist!
"Tangerine", 20" x 18" Oil on Linen
"Watching Clouds Go By", one of my few remaining oil paintings, also found a home thanks to Terakedis Fine Art in Billings, MT!
"Watching Clouds Go By", 55" x 60" Oil on Houndstooth Linen
It is always fun to see a new collector discover my work and in this case she is from Great Falls, MT so, this little painting didn't have far to travel. What a wonderful cultural opportunity the Out West Art Show and Sale has offered its residents all of these years!
"Rockin' The 80's", 8" x 8" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic
Current Exhibitions
Desire Lines, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City - Until May, 26.
"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic Glass
ArtFoodHome.com Blog Post - Featured Artist
Many thanks to Barbara Stroud for finding my art online and being inspired by my work! It is always a wonderful feeling when people admire my work enough to hang it in their home. It is equally amazing when someone chooses to take the time to write about my work for the simple pleasure of sharing their joy with others.
That Barbara is inspired by my work reminds me that so are many others and, that is a gift and an honor. Thank you for enjoying the work that my heart and soul creates! Here's to creating many more paintings that inspire and bring light and joy into the lives of others!
Feature Exhibition, Trove Gallery, Park City, UT
New contemporary work available!
Dimensional. Sculptural. Kinetic. Living Art.
It would be a great honor if you could join me in the celebration opening night
Friday February, 23 from 6-9PM.
Make a night of it in the fresh mountain air!
Book your dinner reservations today.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are an investigation of the intersection of traditional landscape imagery and modern ideas about painting and color. In my practice, I attempt to reconcile my personal history as an art-maker, as well as the tradition of landscape painting, with a contemporary art practice that borrows more specifically from a language of Modernism—specifically in regards to mid-century conversations about painting. Incidentally, both genres at work in my practice (abstraction and landscape) have a tradition of exploring ideas about the Sublime—Romantic and Modern—respectively.
While my subject matter draws heavily from landscape, my process and true exploration is about painting in a Modern sense. My brush strokes become objects that hold their own presence. The colors and layering I use both create the illusion of space and undermine it in the proverbial push-pull of abstract painting. The interplay between light and shadows cast upon the many layers ads to the sculptural interpretation while also creating ‘living’ paintings that appear kinetic, interacting with the natural environment. The purpose of the layering of a transparent painting surface is to raise the stakes; the points of depth are deeper and the points of flatness are flatter. The increased depth and complication of flipping the surface back and forth and layering it multiple times is a demonstration of the mastery of the material as well as a device to push the boundaries of the flatness/depth dichotomy in every painting. My paintings are at once paintings and sculptures and they are at once landscapes and quite the opposite of that—something acrylic and manufactured that is more reflective of contemporary culture.
Current Exhibitions
Desire Lines, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Salt Lake City - Until May, 26
"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic Glass
Square One: Helper Artists of Utah, Finch Lane Gallery
Salt Lake City, UT - Until February 23.
"Me and My Friends, 40" x 40" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic Glass
Upcoming Exhibition
Woodbury Art Museum, UVU, Art of Our Century: Janell James, Spotlight Artist
May 10 - July 14, Orem, UT
SLUG Mag Feature Article and the UMOCA Desire Lines Exhibition
Check out the feature article in SLUG Magazine and see a few pics during opening night at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s (UMOCA) Main Gallery exhibition, Desire Lines, went up on Jan. 26. The show explores representations of the erosion that living beings exact onto the landscape via creating pathways. Of 15 total, Desire Lines features three local artists, Jane Christensen, Janell James and Kelly Larsen, who discuss their participation in the show.
"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic is on exhibition at UMOCA until May 26
SLUG: Please tell us some background about you as an artist and your present artistic practice.
Janell James: I was classically trained at the Bay Area Artists Atelier in San Francisco and then studied in Paris. This way of learning is very tight and technical, and helped me to understand draftsmanship, line, form and light. I knew early on that my personality wouldn’t last long in the classical realism style and what I really wanted was to loosen up my artistic approach. This is when I found the Helper School in Utah, taught by professors from the University of Utah, Paul Davis and David Dornan. Davis and Dornan were great masters at teaching me how to loosen up through various mark-making and random techniques that really helped me evolve as an artist. Twelve years of dedicated study to my craft and continual willingness to learn and try new things is what has helped my work evolve into something with a very unique and original voice.
SLUG: How does your work in the show represent the landscape?
James: Traditionally, landscape art has wanted to connect us back to nature, and I try to do this in a way that combines multiple styles, including traditional, modernism and contemporary art, so that there is a little bit of something for everyone. I mainly paint trees with a composition that allows them to move beyond their borders into the room … My work on acrylic will at first appear to the viewer as a 2-D painting. People are always surprised when they walk up on the work and see the added depth and dimension that was not initially obvious …We relate to nature in the same way. When we are physically in nature, we begin to notice the subtleties and deeper beauty.
SLUG: Specifically regarding the definition of desire lines being paths created by human- or animal-footfall traffic, how does your work respond to that idea?
James: My goal has always been to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary art through my work. This is my path if you will … through the past and its wealth of tradition into the present, where I can explore those ideas through a contemporary vernacular, eventually having found my own line.
Janell James. Photo courtesy of the Artist.
SLUG: What mediums do you employ for your pieces? Why did you choose them?
James: Acrylic plexiglass and acrylic paint. I chose them because they are, in many ways, the polar opposite of traditional mediums—a way to take very complex, age-old master’s techniques like reverse painting and the glazing and layering of oil paints, exploding them onto modern mediums that speak more to current times.
SLUG: What challenges did you face in creating your work for this show, and how did you respond to them?
James: When I was first approached to be a part of Desire Lines, I was thrilled and honored. Realizing I currently have six exhibitions on the books between now and May, you might say I created another puzzle to solve. They say we aren’t given more than we can handle in life, and so far, I’m digging my heals in and enjoying every minute of it, along with some occasional scream therapy and a little dry white wine.
SLUG: Given the politicized state of the Utah landscape in light of Bears Ears National Monument and the conversations happening around the landscape, how might your work comment on or participate in that dialogue?
James: I’m not a political artist, but with the politicized state of the landscape in Utah, it’s been weighing on my mind and is finding it’s way into my work in small ways. One of my latest paintings is titled “Sacred,” and it is of a Southern Utah Juniper tree … The age alone of some of those trees amazes me. Another recent painting is titled “We Stand Together.” Both of these works were finished during the week of the Bears Ears protest at the State Capitol, which I attended. My heart was in my throat while I was there standing with people who shared the same passion, hopes and ideas. The making and titles of those works are ways of marking significant moments for me, and hopefully, they will spark a bigger dialogue about what inspired them.
SLUG: Besides Desire Lines, how may people see/find your work, whether online, in person or otherwise?
James: I’m represented by four galleries nationally with Trove Gallery in Park City, Utah; Rare Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Terakedis Fine Art in Billings, Montana; and Zarks Gallery in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I have recently been contacted by galleries interested in my work in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with a growing national presence. I have a strong online presence as well on Facebook, Janell James Artist; on Instagram and Twitter as @janelljamesartist. Including three museum shows, a feature gallery opening, a group exhibition I co-curated/facilitated with Donna Poulton about Helper Artists and one art fair between now and May, I continue to have a strong regional, exhibition, gallery and museum presence. Upcoming exhibitions: Finch Lane Gallery is currently exhibiting Square One: Helper Artists of Utah, Jan. 12–Feb. 23. Trove Gallery in Park City is curating a feature exhibition of my work Feb. 23–March 9 with an opening reception Feb. 23. At UMOCA, Desire Lines, runs through May 26, having opened Jan. 26. C.M. Russell Exhibition and Auction, Great Falls, Montana, Feb. 15–March 15. UVU, Woodbury Art Museum, Spotlight Artist Janell James, May 10–July 14, Orem, Utah, opening May 15.
Desire Lines is at UMOCA (20 S. West Temple) through May 26. For more information, go to utahmoca.org.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions:
"The Letter", 20" x 16" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic, Trove Gallery, Park City, UT
Opening Feature Exhibition and Reception February 23, 6-9PM - Exhibited through March 9
"Me and My Friends", 40" x 40" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic
Showing at Finch Lane until February 23
See my painting at the Desire Lines Exhibition, Opening January 26 at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art! →
I am excited to announce my participation in Desire Lines, Opening Today...
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art!
RSVP with me personally to attend the VIP/Member Reception from 5-7PM
"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic
DESIRE LINES
MAIN GALLERY: JAN 26 – MAY 26 | 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: JAN 26 | 7 – 9 PM
“Desire Line – a path created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall or traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. Desire lines emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, have gaps or are non-existent.” (Wikipedia)
The landscape as a genre has held captive the imagination of the American public for the better part of the last two centuries. With unbound adoration, we have embraced the landscape, from the grandeur of the paintings of the Hudson School to the manifest destiny myth of a rugged and unspoiled west. Americans have been drawn to artists’ interpretation of place, real and fictional. Despite the popularity of the landscape, too often the public conceptualizes these works in a very traditional way, whether that is plein air oil, watercolor painting or photographs that are devoid of any hint of human disturbance.
Desire Lines highlights the various paths, ranging from archiving to reproduction to collaborations with nature to works that critique the history of landscape focused art, taken by the artists included in the exhibition to explore our complicated relationship to the landscape that shapes and supports us and our repeated desire to represent it.
LIST OF FEATURED ARTISTS:
Ameila Carley
Barry Stone
Brian Patterson
Carly Glovinski
Ian Fisher
Jane Christensen
Janell James
Kelly Larsen
Kirsten Kay Thoen
Maddison Colvin
Michael Handley
Molly Kaderka
Penelope Umbrico
Sara Frantz and Trevor Amery
Visit the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art for more information and directions.
All images and text © 2018 Janell James Studios and Janell James Artist.
Square One: Helper Artists of Utah - January 12 - February 23, 2018
Please Join Us January 19 during SLC Gallery Stroll
Panel Discussion 5PM - 6PM. Artist Opening Reception 6PM - 9PM
Below is your invitation and a Curatorial Essay by Donna Poulton, Ph.D.
The Finch Lane Art Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition:
SQUARE ONE: HELPER ARTISTS OF UTAH
Once an abandoned mining town, Helper, Utah is now a thriving art community.
The success of Helper was an unintended consequence of the desire of a number of
educators, led by art professors David Dornan and Paul Davis, who found that the
lonely town offered not only the solitude they needed for creativity in their own work,
but aordable space to teach serious art students the fundamentals of drawing and
painting contemporary realism. Armed with the mantra, “learn your craft,” the Helper
school opened in the spring of 1995. The school’s teachers didn’t just tell students how
to paint, they showed them how to paint. Dornan noted “…if a student wants to paint
a better apple, show them how to paint a better apple, don’t start talking about the
relevance of an apple.” For Paul Davis, the school oered space for clarity, “after a while
it got so that you could see what a student was thinking while looking at their drawing
or painting, then you could help them to understand that the problem had nothing to
do with mere talent, but that the issue was more about the way in which they focused
their minds.”
The lesson they hoped to teach students is that draftsmanship along with extended
periods of immersion in one’s craft are among the fundamental building blocks for
creativity. This exhibition examines the work of a number of extraordinary artists who
studied at the Helper school and who attribute their level of artistry and success to the
generosity and talent of its teachers. These distinguished artists sell work throughout
the country, some directly from their studios in Helper. While they share the lineage of
their craft, with slight and subtle veins of thematic and stylistic similarities, each has a
distinct style.
Donna L. Poulton, Ph.D., Exhibition Curator
All images and text © 2018 Janell James Studios and Janell James Artist.
Happy New Year!!! May 2018 be a year filled with art that makes you smile!
Nationally emerging artist Janell James is reinventing the landscape with unique dimensional paintings on multiple panes of acrylic glass. These paintings are singular in approach, sculptural and kinetic becoming 'living' paintings as light shifts and plays between the layers, casting shadows and illuminating her subjects.
"Janell's work is mesmerizing, vibrant and sophisticated, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary art."
~ Rick Armstrong, Rare Gallery Fine Art, Jackson Hole, WY
It is an honor to be a part of the following 2018 Exhibitions.
Please join me if you can!
Finch Lane Gallery, Square One: Artists of Helper, January 12 - February 23, SLC, UT.
Artist Opening Reception with Panel Discussion, January 19, 5PM - 9PM.
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Desire Lines, January 26 - May 26, SLC, UT. Opening Reception, January 26.
Trove Gallery, Featured Artist Exhibition, February 23 - March 9, Park City, UT.
Artist Opening Reception February 23, 6PM - 9PM.
C.M. Russell Museum Exhibition, February 15 - March 15, Great Falls, MT.
C. M. Russell Auction, Mansfield Convention Center, March, 16.
Out West Art Show and Sale, March 14 - 17, Great Falls, MT.
Best Western Heritage Inn, Room #262.
Woodbury Art Museum, UVU, Art Of Our Century: Spotlight Artist Janell James, May 10 - July 14, Orem, UT.
Artist Opening Reception May 15, 6PM - 8PM.
I'm looking forward to 2018, creating art, and celebrating successes with you!
Wishing you and yours all the best in 2018!
Sincerely,
Janell
"Me and My Friends", 40" x 40" acrylic on multi-layered acrylic glass. Finch Lane Gallery Opening, January 19, SLC, UT.
Punctuating The Blue, Solo Exhibition, Billings, MT
“Janell’s dedication over the past ten years to her full-time painting career is impressive to say the least, especially speaking as a gallery owner, this is but one aspect that I feel makes her collectible as an artist. She is one of the hardest working artists I have come across, focused and determined to make a way for herself as a professional in a career that requires both persistence and resilience, marketing skills, commitment to her trade, and an adaptability that allows her to continue to create new processes of work unlike any other. She is unique and original in this nexus of work and, this is what makes her stand out as an artist to watch.”
You are cordially invited to attend my first solo, gallery showing of new works on multi-layered acrylic at Terakedis Fine Art in Billing, MT. There will be three openings September 21, 22 and, 23. If you can attend please, let me know and I will make sure you are on the VIP list.
It is an honor for me that Terakedis Fine Art placed ads in both Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine and Western Art Collector for this exhibition. I truly am reaching my dream and, feel so fortunate to have great people behind me advocating my work!
Since the inception of this work 1 1/2 years ago, I have sold more than 2/3 of the collection. I am grateful beyond belief at the success that I am having and, want you to know how grateful I am to you for helping me get here. If you haven’t seen this new collection yet, I do hope that you can one day soon. My Salt Lake City, UT studio and home gallery are always open by appointment so, please let me know when you would like a private tour.
It has been a long time since I shared with you what has been happening in my art life and, that is because it has been the ‘good kind of busy'. Since the successful auctioning of my painting “Closer” during the C.M. Russell Museum’s annual auction in Great Falls, MT in March (watch below), I have participated in three other showings and have been vigorously preparing for my solo show less than two weeks away.
I have a blog coming soon to keep you up to date in more relevant time, a new website that I just released, along with many other exciting things on the horizon that I look forward to sharing with you!
Until next time, take care!
Kindly,
Janell
