Tag: artist

Spirit of Ochre

Uncategorized

June 7 marks the date of a solo Art Exhibition featuring my Art at the Piper J Gallery in Truckee, CA.

The reception opens at the first Art Walk of the Summer for the Truckee Businesses. I will be giving a short talk about my work and processes at the gallery beginning at 5 pm. All Art work featured in this exhibition is new and alive with new ways of incorporating brighter colors and different animals. Yes, the popular bears and Reindeer will also be there. Come join us for a pleasant cool evening, wine, treats and a walk about town.

It is the “Spirit of Ochre” that brings color and meaning to Art; it breathes in the life and mystery of the ancient past exhaling the curiosity and wonder of it today.

Enjoy! Jennifer

We are just entering the half way mark of the year and ready to embrace another half year still ahead. For all of us time passes differently, yet there are new beginnings, ideas and opportunities rising. I had hoped to set dates for workshops but have found that this was too much to plan while the Piper J Gallery in Truckee set sights on opening a second gallery in Truckee, Ridgeline Gallery, in the center of town. Lots of energy and preparations are still in progress with the hope of opening this wonderful space by the end of June. Here more Art and artists along with photography will be on display.

Anyone interested in taking a workshop in July and/or August, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Please email me with your interest.

Enjoy the summer days!

New Work, New Ideas, New Beginnings

Uncategorized

The past year had its challenges, but we worked hard to see through them, to keep moving forward.  Now we turn our gaze to higher goals and ideas that bring inspiration, hope and joy.  I enjoy seeing the “new beginnings” as I play with familiar shapes and figures across my canvases using different colors, textures and themes that bring delight; inscribing and embedding new pictographic messages to uplift and challenge ways of old thinking into new ways and ideas, therefore, creating new beginnings.

This year I am offering two pigment paint workshops. In these workshops I teach the processes I use from collecting minerals to using them to paint on a canvas or a clay surface.  One is possible at the end of March and the other in June. Both are to be held at the Piper J Gallery in Truckee.  I hope to finalize the dates soon.  Also, please contact me with questions or considerations of possible private group workshops or pigment collecting hikes here in Nevada City or other places nearby.

On another note, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival begins next week, Thursday February 13, at Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, CA to kick off the festival with its annual Art Exhibition and Reception, “Wild at Heart” 4:30 – 6:30.  Come join us! You are very welcome! The Festival runs Feb 13 – 23.

I have one large painting in the show, “In A Purple Universe” and three sculpture pieces from an installation, “Echoes of Wonder: A Reindeer Garden,” showcased at the Piper J Gallery, Truckee CA, in September 2024 and in the Open Studios Tour here in Nevada County West, October 2024

Ochre Rest: 12.5×9.5×5″
Taking Flight: “Dragonfly Dreams”24x10x7”

Lastly, included in this blog is a link to a video, a short trailer to a longer film, made this past year.  It is introduced by my daughter, Ashley, and shows a glimpse of how we work together to hike, collect minerals and process them.  The film, “Nature to Art” was produced by Jayanti Sakar, Graduate student at UNR.

Keep In Touch! Enjoy and Kind regards,

Jennifer

Save The Date! Open Studios 2021

Studio Visit

Open Studio Tour 2021 is HERE!


Wow! It is wonderful to have the opportunity to share my Art space once again. I have been able to exhibit my work and interact with people with the Covid mandates in place through Galleries, exhibitions and group shows. This year Art will be displayed outside in our garden and among our trees of the forest. The Pit Fire is quiet for now as we are still in “fire season”, but is open to viewing along with demonstrations in painting with natural pigments, the processes I use, and the exciting advances made with my sculptures. You are welcome to tour the Art, ask questions, and enjoy the atmosphere.

New works stem from the theme “Unmasked: Becoming Visible.” The process of my art is one of being unmasked and becoming visible. I Am an Earth Artist and so I collect, study and prepare minerals from the earth to make paints for my artwork. These ochres are ground, mixed with walnut oil and softened beeswax, and the true colors become visible. Charcoal graces the panel as figures of ancient animals emerge along with signs and symbols of early languages. The ochres refine and define the whispers from the Ancestral winds that the earth has experienced before, a past that belongs to us.

Unmasked are the deeper meanings and mysteries of the Ancients which appear in the images that become visible. As a lifelong artist and my relentless interest in historical roots, digging into the ancient past has led me on an intriguing journey to uncover forgotten times, stories and paths. These mysteries reveal clear intelligence and spiritual practices through their art and signs; these become visible through inspirations that emerge from and into my Art. The signs of the past become the visible signs of now.

Please join me for the the 2nd and 3rd weekends in October
for Nevada County’s Open Studio Tour.


See you in the garden!

Chalkin’ It Up: Street Art Challenge Response

Features & Fanfare, New Works

I put the challenge out there and YOU have answered! From Coast-to-Coast, street art has been flowing-in as folks all over are taking on the Street-Art-Challenge I put out last month. It’s been such a joy watching all the clips, photos, and videos of your artwork come in over the last month from YOUR STREET to MY STREET, offering such meaningful connection during this strange time. BIG Thank you to all who participated…here’s a compilation of a bit of what I received:

In more news…

Here is a video showing how I begin the process of a painting with mineral paints and gold leaf.

  1. I mix natural minerals from the earth with walnut oil along with softened natural beeswax.
  2. It is applied by using different tools: paintbrush, eco-friendly thinner, palette knife, or rib.
  3. In this painting, handmade and recycled papers are applied with a hand mixed plant based glue and left to dry thoroughly.
  4. The charcoal pencil is used to create a basic sketch of images on the surface.
  5. From here the background and foreground areas are worked with paints to create varying thicknesses of richness in color.

Finished Work is up at this online gallery:

Home Project, Osborn Woods Gallery, Nevada City, Ca. 

Home is Within: Home are the Stories from Within;
who I think and believe I am. 

RuggeJ_StoriesfromHome

From out of the Fire

New Works

Working with the guidance of artist, Deborah Bridges, who creates phenomenal figurative sculptures in clay, I have taken up the endeavor to bring the images from my paintings into 3-d.

After many experiments with different clay bodies and mineral test tiles, I am creating these images through the process of pit firing. I dug a small pit into one of our raised beds for easy access. Then I built an enclosed space around this pit with fire bricks, stacking them to keep heat inside but a bit of air to breathe. I collected various materials from our surrounding forests for fuel. I waited for cold rainy days to set-in and prepared the pit along with the bisque clay figurines. I added different layers of combustibles under, around, and over each sculpture to encourage variations in the burn process. The fire was kindled. It burned all day, smoking nicely after I placed a metal cover over the top. It smoked throughout the night into the wee morning hours when only heat from the lower part of the pit still felt warm. Then carefully each figure was removed. Aww, the thrill of it all! Such magic!

Statue from the pit

Meet Me in Italy!

Features & Fanfare

I’ve been invited to teach in Italy!

This June,
join me for an Earth Art Immersion at

Cascina Rodiani – Green Hospitality

Click to Download form for Details

REGISTER on ‘Workshops’

 

Featured Artist: Nevada County Arts Council

Features & Fanfare, Uncategorized

We mostly see Jennifer in supportive roles, cheering on fellow artists, quietly shouting jen mixingout a cause, always in service to her community.

Still waters run deep, though, and a glimpse into her working life as an artist shows a serious, driven commitment to her work, and a passion for color and technique.

Tell us about your art form and medium, Jennifer.

I use oils on 2D wood surfaces. I collect natural minerals, grinding and mixing them with oil and cold wax then paint onto the canvas covered with different papers and textures. Using pallet knives, brushes, and charcoal pencils I draw and paint.

 

Many Hands Make a Masterpiece

Studio Visit

It was a great time having our Art group come by to visit my studio. We laughed, had wonderful conversations, food and interacted to create an art piece together. We mixed red ochre, yellow ochre, and mica gold as our colors. We used recycled paper on a masonite board, 18 x 24″, for our canvas. Then we went paint-happy on our hands…with gloves, of course. What a bonding experience!

Voluptuous Venus

New Works

Inspiration comes in different ways. Recently I joined a group of artists, all women, to support our art endeavors and experiences.  From the conversations and my studies of ancient artworks, I found I was drawn to the small stone statues of voluptuous women, well-known as “Venus”. Soon thereafter, visions of this ancient beauty flooded my thoughts…I had to paint her.

I prepared the canvas, mixed my paints and began to work swept up in the ancestral past. Incorporated into the painting are symbols that not only were found in ancient cave etchings, but cross into roots of ancient written languages such as Egyptian, Phoenician, and Hebraic pictographs. Embedded into this painting are the meanings given by scholars today. The ancient relics of Venus are mostly regarded as fertility goddesses. Yet, women had a more valuable standing where, “Earth brings forth life, and Earth nourishes life, and so is the analogous powers of woman…the mother too of our second birth, our birth as spiritual entities.”¹ And this work conveys that…

Voluptuous Venus

Symbols

Woman — nurtures, sustains and maintains tender constant support and protection

Staff — teacher, guide, protection, moving forward (feminine)

Ox — power, strength, leadership (masculine). Together these symbolize authority.  “EL” is the Aleph, the first, and Lamed, the staff.

Position of figure — like the Hebraic “tsade” meaning side.  It is the trail, path or journey the individual takes.

¹Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine by Joseph Campbell