NATURAL PIGMENT PAINTINGS ON CANVAS

JANE COOK  /  Stepping Into The River

Mineral, earth, and botanical pigment paintings

What I enjoy most about working with mineral pigments is the unpredictability of the ways they interact.
This makes the process of painting more difficult but introduces what John Cage called “Chance operations.”
I love the mystery of this. The act of painting becomes a lively conversation between myself and the materials
until we reach an agreement. I follow the paint and am not concerned with imperfection.
Imperfection is a kind of beauty, and vulnerability.
 

There is intention. But the paintings, when successful, are meant to feel like the absence of human intent.
The flow of natural elements inform the image. Rather than a portrait of nature,
I am working with energy, form and movement. 

I literally spend my time watching paint dry: I push water and pigment around the canvas and observe.
Layer upon layer I follow and shape color.
 The way colors spread across canvas, transforming each other.
Edges where light and dark merge. Gradually form emerges.

Working a theme and with certain colors over an extended period brings subtle and incremental changes,
part of an inner dialog that is constantly deciding what feels vital and alive.
Each time I approach the canvas I bring who I am on that day.

Why the landscape? 

The earth is the healing, always beyond our knowing and control. 

EARTH ARIA SERIES (2019)  (#1 & #2)



AUTUMN MESA (2019)