208 Spruce Avenue #C-2A, Ketchum
Artist Bio
Jill Lear is a painter whose trees in the landscape are a means of transcribing not only the experience of being in, and thinking about, Nature, but also the way in which we process the world around us. Jill’s large-scale works on paper have been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin and Los Angeles Her work has been acquired by the permanent collections at Boston Children’s Hospital, The American Institute in Taipei, One World Trade Center, Wright State University Art Museum in Dayton, OH, as well as the Philip Isles Collection, New York. Jill trained formally at the New York Studio School and holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and The Chambre Syndicale of Haute Couture in Paris.
Artist Statement
It starts with a single tree in the landscape: ancient, complex and witness to history. I assign it its latitude and longitude and the investigation begins; a mapping of the experience of being in and thinking about Nature.
In my latest body of work called Urban Sprawl: Trees in Cities, I visit and record trees that are not only surviving but thriving in urban areas. I choose magnificent trees that reach out and embrace their environments with sprawling branches and intricate root systems.
My challenge is to transcribe the experience of being in front of a particular tree, in a particular place. The process itself consists of using charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, Japanese paper and washi tape to reflect light and movement, positive forms and negative spaces…creating portraits of these ancient trees, entire landscapes in their roots and universes between their branches.
These trees are not just my subject matter, they are my inspiration.