Jane Varda Artist Statement:
I work concurrently as a freelance art director and painter in my office and studio. Trained in a variety of media, I paint primarily in oil and pastels en plein air. During snow season, I work in the studio, either from still life or my own photo references. My subject matter is drawn from the world I see around me and from that to which I am deeply, emotionally connected–the sanctuary of my country home and gardens, the limitless landscape opportunities outside my door, my family and my animals. In winter, simple, quiet still life arrangements of edibles, ceramics, metal and fabric occupy my interest. Photographs taken over many years fill boxes, and projects fill my head. There are not enough hours in the day, years in a lifetime, for all the painterly possibilities in the vast, rich imagery that surrounds me.
I love the atmospherics of the passing seasons in the rural landscape. I am fascinated by the pattern, shape, texture, and infinite colour in both big-sky landscapes or in the minutiae of perfect details found in exquisitely formed, natural objects. I look for the design and the abstraction within an image–working from natural subject matter to capture an image not identical to, but the equivalent of a scene. I become engaged in breaking down various elements of a view and recreating them on canvas or paper, in oil paint or pastel. Outside, working with constantly moving light changing value, hue and chroma, I have to make my statements fast. I am making colour decisions to frame an emotional response–an interpretation–of a moment held in time. A landscape, or my presence in it, may be as transient as the day’s light is fleeting.
Every painting experience is different and not every painting is a keeper. The satisfaction that comes from a good day spent making art, with the possibility that something of painterly worth has been created, to be enjoyed and reflected on long after the day has passed, compels this artist to go back out again and again and again.
