Janet Grissom’s current series, Hocking Hills,includes paintings that she felt driven to create after a recent walk around the Ash Cave and Old Man’s Cave areas in southeastern Ohio. Retrieving fond memories of nature over the decades, she walked on the familiar rocky paths. “I wanted more than presence and being visually correct,” shares Grissom. “I wanted to bring back the emotion that enveloped me while observing the monumental sandstone, glistening waterfalls, towering hemlocks and lush undergrowth…I want the viewer to feel as if they shared in the interaction.” Grissom focused on the initial feelings that erupted in her mind when she was in the presence of Hocking Hills. There was little time to spare if she was to share the purity of the damp, green shelters and, upon returning to her studio, she began painting immediately. “Untainted by photos, my emotions flowed freely on the canvases, like water over stone, trees against sky.”
Janet Grissom, Rocks, Water and 4 Trees, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Janet Grissom, Quietness on the Move, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
After Grissom’s initial gestural marks, she lets the paint hit the canvas, with a focus on values and the vibrancy of color and light, to enhance the intensity of the landscape and her emotional response to it.
The textural structure of the paint is another means of telling the stories of her personal experiences in nature; in this series, the excitement and peace she found amid the Hocking Hills.
Janet Grissom, Moments at the Waterfalls, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Grissom currently has two ongoing exhibitions at Hocking Hills Lodge Gallery in Logan, Ohio; and at Jack Pine Gallery in Hocking Hills, Ohio. Visit the artist’s website for details. —
Want to See More?
paintingsbygrissom@gmail.com
www.janetgrissompaintings.com
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