Jennifer Francis Fearon

Artist Statement

Our modern world can move jarringly quickly, bombarding the senses with images, conflicting information and ideas. I make art slowly as a counterweight to our expedited cultural moment, honoring serene simplicity. In the interplay of light with water or in the compelling patterns in nature, we feel an essential truth: We are of the natural world, not separate from it. In this knowledge, our humanity is restored.

I began to explore the use of natural art materials in order to further express the values of ecology, sustainability, and physical connection to the earth in my work. These include natural inks, plant dyes, minerals and metals. In a mineral pigment painting system, gauzy layers of color are built up with pigments of varying particle sizes. These materials express nature based subjects in just the way I see them: luminous and poetic.

Drawing from my experience in western watercolor and oil painting, I use mineral pigments in combination with other materials to create unique contemporary imagery. I find making paint with my fingers from natural clay, plant dye and rocks to be a lovely ritual. I touch the materials from the earth to create imagery about deep connection to place. The process is tactile, meditative and meaningful. It is slow art that includes earth, time and much of the maker’s hand in every piece.

Biography

Jennifer Francis Fearon is a visual artist working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her paintings have been shown at Arts Benicia, Santa Cruz Art League, Palo Alto Art Center, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sausalito Art Center, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts and Still Point Arts Quarterly. Her work is concerned with our connection to the natural world. Jennifer’s kinship with nature began in childhood when she escaped to the woods near her Houston home to find a quiet place to read and draw. The solace found there created a sense of place outdoors that informs her today. Hot summers spent in and near the water provided hours of observing light refracting in pools, lakes and the ocean. Two years living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a teenager led to her interest in Asian aesthetics and spiritual philosophies. These experiences, combined with those of a full and curious life, have evolved into a daily art practice that calls attention to beauty as both a healing truth and a call to action. Jennifer works in Marin County, California where she has lived for 30 years, making art, raising a family and participating in community based non-profit organizations. Jennifer’s formal art instruction began with two years at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She has taken printmaking workshops at Crown Point Press in San Francisco and studied with various artists, including, Cindy Miracle, Randall Sexton and Chester Arnold in the Bay Area and Judith Kruger in Connecticut.