Intuition and instinct guide France Jodoin as she approaches a canvas. Even as analytical a thinker as Albert Einstein said, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” Jodoin explains, “I seem to need ambiguity and contrast. I want a painting to be representative enough that a viewer can see a figure in a dress, a port city architecture or a boat on the water, but at the same time I’m not interested in trying to recreate a scene or a specific geographical location.
Till the Wind Shakes a Thousand Whispers, oil on linen, 40 x 60"
“I try to create places where people can rest, like landscapes do. For me, a landscape is never aggressive. It is restful, meditative and contemplative. I want people who view my paintings to take the time to take the time.”
An exhibition of her paintings, In a Place of Dreams, will be shown at Lily Pad Gallery West in Milwaukee from February 28 through April 30.
We Cannot Think of a Time that is Oceanless, oil on linen, 60 x 72"
From the Wide Window Towards the Granite Shore, oil on linen, 40 x 80"
Jodoin provides enough information in her ethereal landscapes to evoke memories of, perhaps, Venice? A lake in a city park? The viewer is free to wander, stimulated by the suggestions she presents. The eye also wanders among the energetic brushstrokes. She says, “I am very much a gestural painter, I attack the canvas, so to speak; it is intuitive. The image is built, taken apart and rebuilt with every brushstroke.”
Even her titles invite further contemplation. One still life painting is titled An Island Whom None but Daisies Know, adapted from a poem by Emily Dickinson. Jodoin chooses her titles after a work is done, browsing through her anthologies of poetry until a particular phrase resonates with her, not referring directly to the painting, but adding another stimulus for meditation and reverie. 
An Island Whom None but Daisies Know, oil on linen, 60 x 48"T.S. Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” provided the title for Till the Wind Shakes a Thousand Whispers, a scene inhabited by seemingly tiny people, inspired by her experience of looking down on people from her perch high upon the back of an elephant. —
Lily Pad Gallery West 215 N. Broadway • Milwaukee, WI 53202 • (414) 509-5756 • www.lilypadgallery.com
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