Statement

Jess's work is a bold interpretation of 21st century abstract art meeting with the idyllic countryside of Pembrokeshire, it evokes a sense of passion for the landscape that she has grown up in. The young welsh artist works in a variety of mediums such as acrylics, inks, wax and oils to name a few, she said ' I like to experiment and challenge the limits of the medium that I'm working with but It's equally important to keep challenging my skills and test myself.' The idea of contrasting colours and the rugged countryside of Pembrokeshire is a continual theme within her work as if to challenge any preconceived ideas of a traditional image of the landscape, her work seems as if it has been brutally attacked with brush strokes and markings but has a sense of honesty about it and it is what it is and not an ideal!.


Everything creates the art, the sea, sound, smell, land and weather they all play an emphasis in creating the work and it is not about a singular component, not a singular artist, not a singular response, not a singular narrative but a singular concept of simple embracing the landscape.

My work is based on the landscape and growing up in Pembrokeshire has played a huge role in how I respond and think about the landscape. The landscape is growing, it is alive and with that we have a minimal/ temporary effect on it in which to create our own marking. More recently my work has been based on working with the landscape literally within the 'everyday' and essentialy allowing the landscape to create the works. I been looking at the positioning between human existence and the landscape for a while, we all have fixed perceptions in everything throughout self-signifcant periods in our life and therefore words/ transcriptions of the works never translate the [true] visual. I am interested in the real, do we ever encounter the real? Or are we mindles and blind in the pure and bliss? Have our human perceptions diluted or simply removed the real? My work is based on a direct experience of a visual and a response towards that which indirectly touches the real. I have been trying to limit the amount of [aware] mediums to make an allowance for the unexpected ones of nature ( weather/ air temp/ time). The sea paintings 2009 capture a moment in time in the landscape, its present and therefore its past.

I am a painter .....I paint what I feel, see, touch and imagine ...I breath painting and not a theory on how to paint

http://jessjohn.co.uk/
jessicajohn@live.co.uk
www.twitter.com.jessjohn_artist