The landscapes and nature scenes of painter Jennifer Sowders are irresistibly tactile, filled with varying textures that seem to leap off the canvas. Having grown up on a dead-end road in the countryside, the northwest Ohio-native spent a lot of her life studying nature, a quality evident in her artwork today. Currently living in Fostoria, Ohio, the artist creates her woodland impasto pieces with just a palette knife, acrylic paints and a silicone-tipped tool for intricate details in smaller areas, often leaving the canvas white from the start instead of blocking in her tones.
Walk of Adoration, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48"“A lot of what I do, I do to impair my natural desire to paint too realistically,” Sowders explains of her process. “Also, an impetus to not use a brush plays a big part. I often begin with a white ground so that it will force me to make more marks. More marks means more exciting texture. It forces me into the impressionism I love.”
Hampton Hills Metro Park, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36"
Symphony, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24"
Sowders is especially drawn to the autumn season, with all of its warm, golden hues. “I love the quality of the autumnal light, which is more golden [and] diffused—as opposed to [the brightness of] summer—has longer shadows, and I love the pops of color the leaves bring,” she says.
West Hills 2, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36"
Van Buren State Park, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36"
Her piece Hampton Hills Metro Park came from a visit to a park in Akron, Ohio. “The dramatic lighting and distant glow bouncing up to kiss the early fall day was truly enchanting,” says the artist. Inspired by a fall hike at Ohio’s Dundee Falls, Autumn Stream captures a smattering of fallen butterscotch-colored leaves drifting downstream. And in Sowders’ latest piece Walk of Adoration, we’re treated to an enchanting view of a tree-lined path in the heart of fall.
Autumn Stream, acrylic on canvas panel, 16 x 20"
Jennifer Sowders in her studio. Photo courtesy Artrepreneur.
In addition to her acrylic work—a medium she actually started working in just three years ago—Sowders is also an avid watercolorist. She is a signature member and trustee of the Ohio Watercolor Society and Signature Kentucky Watercolor Society; as well as an associate member of Allied Artists of America, National Watercolor Society, American Impressionist Society, American Watercolor Society and National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society. Currently, Sowders is represented by the Toledo Museum of Art’s Collector Corner and Marcia Evans Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. —
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