"Art is contemplation.
It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there
divines the spirit of which Nature herself is animated." Auguste Rodin
On July 11, 2017, on my 81st birthday, I made a
life changing decision. I decided that I
would learn to paint with pastels and show them in my studio, along with my
photography, for the 2017 Camano Island Art Studio Tour. While attending life
drawing classes at Dakota Art, in Mt. Vernon Washington, I was introduced to
pastel painting and it was love at first sight.
The learning curve has been steep but I feel rewarded in so many ways for
my effort and hard work and feel joyful anticipation for the future since the love
has lasted not only through the good times but also through all the hard times. I picked up six paintings yesterday from my
framer and felt tears of joy sting my eyes to see the beauty I had
created. I have seven weeks until the
show and feel excited to see what wonderful images will appear when I apply
those gorgeous vibrant colors to the paper on my easel
My passage into the world of art started with three years of
undergraduate studies at Western Oregon State College, focusing on watercolor
painting and photography. Subsequently I
opened Indigo Iris Gallery in West Linn, Oregon, and spent three extremely rewarding
and priceless years providing artists, emerging artists, and fine craft artists
an opportunity to show their work.
During this time I pursued photography as my creative outlet; the rewarding experience of searching for interesting subjects for human interest photography occupied my time for a while; photographing nature soon captured my interest and became my full time
passion and has remained so until today.
After I closed Indigo Iris gallery I did some traveling
which afforded me many wonderful opportunities to capture interesting human
interest photography. New and strange
places inspired me to see the beauty in nature in a new way; from the haunting
beauty of New Mexico, the land of enchantment, to the glorious beauty of the
great Northwest, I was inspired with a new vision.
When I photograph nature, my goal is to see an unusual
aspect that sets it apart from an ordinary photograph and when that aspect
reveals itself in the final photo I know that I was fortunate to be there
at that precise moment in time.
I can't imagine life without an outlet for creativity; I can't imagine life without art and music.
The artist community of Zhibit.org laments the passing of Jeanne Wolfington. We are keeping this website online as tribute to the memory and life's work of Jeanne Wolfington, RIP.
