97th Annual Spring Salon, Springville Museum of Art

It is always an honor to be included in the Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art, Springville, UT! Out of more than 1,000 juried entries, 250 are chosen each year to be on exhibit.

The history of the museum began in 1903, becoming Utah’s first visual art’s museum. It is a beautiful space for contemplating art. Stop in to see the Spring Salon, April 21 to July 3, 2021, showcasing the diversity and quality of Utah Contemporary Art. Take this opportunity to see “Tracing Clouds” up close and peer into her multi-layered paint strokes and get lost in your own imagination.

“Tracing Clouds”, 23.5” x 23.5” Acrylic on Multi-Pane Acrylic Glass
(27.5” x 27.5” Framed)
Available

One of the Remaining Few: Old Ranch Road, Now Collected!

15 years as an artist has taken me down many roads, from the traditional painted landscape with oil on canvas, to today’s approach adding a contemporary twist to the landscape painted on multiple layers of clear acrylic glass. At this point in my career trajectory, I no longer paint using oil on canvas but I do still have 30 paintings left out of the 300 plus that I have created over the years.

All oil paintings from my private collection are now on display in one of two Salt Lake City gallery locations. Take a look at the remaining collection and consider reserving a private viewing of one or several oil paintings that catch your eye.

You will notice some landscapes in the collection are more Fauvist in color, graphic by design. Other oil paintings are from my Classically trained days, in which the landscape is more tonal and traditional. All of these styles and approaches to painting have led me to where I am today, creating and inventing new ways of painting the landscape. When you look, you will see this obvious progression from yesterday to today.

“Old Ranch Road”, 30” x 40” Oil on Canvas
Private Collection

"Collecting Memories" marks 100!

“Collecting Memories” marks my hundredth multi-layered painting applying a technique I created and have continued to explore over the past four years. Painting on the front and back of five panes of clear acrylic glass, these paintings are ten layers deep. They are 3-dimensional, sculptural, kinetic works of art that interact within their environment and move with the shifting light of day. They are wondrous to see in person, sparking the creative mind, and inspiring conversation.

This 10” x 10” painting I have chosen to keep in my personal collection. It not only makes me smile, it marks a milestone in this particular painting series, also in my personal life and career as an artist. “Collecting Memories” is the third painting in my wild flower series with more soon to come.

Minimally painted, each petal, stem, leaf is separated on its own pane of glass inviting a closer look into the 3-dimensions, intentionally done to add literal depth and perspective. The unassuming arrangement, carefully laid on a wood table under a warm sun reveals the innate fragility and fleeting, delicate nature of wild flowers. A calling in a different voice, asking us to notice their carefree, impermanent presence. A finger pointing to the still unnoticed field gathering of wild flowers swaying unified in the breeze, soaking up sunrays, a silent urging pulling us closer to observe their simplistic, vibrant, and mysterious beauty.

“Collecting Memories”, 10” x 10” Acrylic on Multi-Panel Acrylic Glass
Personal Collection

When I was a little girl, my mom used to sow a bed of flowers on my back with her hands to help entice me to sleep. First she would till the soil, massaging my back with her hands, then use a hoe she made with her finger to scratch out the rows. After, she would carefully plant each seed, and water the soil with raining fingers all over my back. To help the seeds grow, she would rub my back making it warm like the sun shining down. Finally, she would pull from my back, lightly pinching my skin toward the sky, to signify the growing and blooming of each wild flower she planted in our garden. A lovely memory in my forever collection.

There is no love like that of a mothers or fathers. I am forever grateful for these loving memories.

May many blessing find you in this day!
Kindly,
Janell

"Taking It All In" - More than ever I find reprieve in the great outdoors!

“Taking It All In” found a home with a new collector in Indiana this month. I met this wonderful person and collector over ten years ago in Paris, France in April. We were both there for an intensive Classical Realism drawing program through Studio Escalier. Learning to sculpt the figure with varied hardness of charcoal pencil on paper we spent our time drawing at the Louvre Museum and from a live model. These six weeks in Paris were filled with so many gifts including new friendship.

I felt both like a tourist at times, and someone who was starting to consider Paris a second home. Paris will forever hold a special place in my heart. With travel currently placed on the back burner, it is wonderful to have such fond memories and a friend to reconnect with over art and our shared study abroad experience.

Travel is returning, still today my journeys take me outdoors among the trees. With the arrival of spring, it is so nice to be outside and see new buds on the trees and shrubs, green leaves and splashes of brilliant color emerging through the damp soil. Soon the trees will be full of leaves and song birds, and the dirt paths we find will continue to lead the way toward adventure and discovery. It is a season ripe with change and emergence, growth and vibrance, my happy place. Happy Spring!

“Taking It All In”, 30” x 24” Acrylic on Multi-Pane Acrylic Glass
Private Collection

“Taking It All In”, 30” x 24” Acrylic on Multi-Pane Acrylic Glass
Private Collection

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

— Henry David Thoreau