2018 Jhenna Quinn Lewis Exhibition Catalog

JHENNA QUINN LEWIS A Haiku of Birds

JHENNA QUINN LEWIS A Haiku of Birds

December 14-21, 2018

on the cover:

It’s Lunch!

oil

12x9

225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico | 505.983.1434 | www.meyergalleries.com | meyersfnm@aol.com

"I seemed to be born with a love and appreciation for art and nature, or maybe a better word to describe this is awe. Art is a universal language that can teach us about ourselves and our world. It is a part of all our lives and surrounds us even if we don't notice or understand it.

I have always had the need to create through images on canvas. The need is to foster an understanding of nature that is reflective, which suggests the presence of some unacknowledged mystery. A painting is a moment held in time: artists strive to capture something in that moment and give it eternity. For me, paintings have a meditative quality. Through the manipulation of composition, subject matter, color, light, and shading, I try to bring out a subtle inherent quietness that the viewer can be drawn into. My hope is to create a state of mind. I have always lived in two separate worlds that unite the real and the imagined.�

Jhenna Quinn-Lewis began studying art in 1976 at the university of Illinois.

She went on to later become the art director-manager at the Ferndale Art Cooperative in Ferndale, California. She was also the owner/director of the Candy Stick Gallery in Ferndale. To further her own artistic endeavors, she studied with David A. Leffel, one of the country’s most respected and well know artists in 1999. Her work has been featured in many publications such as Southwest Art Magazine and US Art Magazine. Her paintings are also included in the corporate collections of Harry and David as well as a commissioned painting in the private collection of Lawton Chiles, the former Governor of California.

Still Life of Autumn

oil

12x9

The minimalist paintings of Oregon artist Jhenna Quinn Lewis are inspired by Japanese painting and print making aesthetics including flat patterning, simple arrangements and understated elegance. Most recently, Lewis’ Asian influences have extended from visual artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, Utamaro and Hasegawa Tōhaku to include writers and poets, most notably Matsuo Bashō – the master of haiku poetry. To create her latest body of work Lewis revisited her collection of Japanese art books that have held significant inspiration for her work over the years. A book of Bashō’s haikus particularly stood out and captivated Lewis, leading her to devise a poetic theme for her solo exhibition, “Haiku of Birds.”

I Have the Pearl!

oil

14x11

Your Selection?

oil

8x10

“Haiku poetry is synonymous with my style of composition and work,” says Lewis, whose aesthetic directly aligns with the simple, rhythmic cadence of haiku. Lewis found that while Basho’s poetry is written in a restrained style, his words and phrases illicit beautiful images and ideas. Lewis paints in a similar way, juxtaposing simplistically arranged compositions with ornately detailed subjects. In “Haiku of Birds,” Lewis’ highly refined birds perch on stacked books or decorated Asian boxes against subdued backgrounds, which are often patterned in a style akin to Asian screens. Each painting is perfectly balanced with an emphasis on negative space matching the structured, direct expression of a haiku poem. In this exhibition, Lewis hopes that her paintings and their titles may act as a springboard for the viewer to write their own freeform haiku poems.

Balance

oil

8x8

Browsing Through

oil

12x24

Repairs Underway

oil

8x12

Even though Lewis’s aesthetic favors simplicity, her birds are meticulously detailed and represent a very specific species. Finches, orioles, woodpeckers, tanagers and more can be recognized in her latest paintings. While her vision is quiet and minimalist, Lewis’ process is deceivingly complex. She typically has six or seven pieces in process at once, and each painting consists of at least 12 layers of paint and varnish. In several of her new works, Lewis’ birds are backlit by a smoky glow or hazy orange light, an effect of her extensive layering technique as well as a subconscious influence from recent forest fires in the west. Adding varnish between each layer of paint gives her final work a translucent, atmospheric quality that provides a feeling of peaceful clarity for the viewer.

Winter’s Evening Snow

oil

8x6

The Current Book Selection

oil

8x10

Under the Song of the Iris

oil 9x12

Scent of Iris

oil

12x9

Winter Solstice

oil

18x14

Gazing Outward

oil

8x6

Haiku

oil

12x24

The Door Opened

oil

16x12

Blue Sky Overhead

oil

8x6

Longing

oil

6x12

The Night Owls Watch

oil

20x16

Close of the Night

oil

20x16

Your Selection?

oil

8x10

Finding the Key

oil

16x8

JHENNA QUINN LEWIS Balance Blue Sky Overhead Browsing Through Close of the Night Finding the Key Gazing Outward Haiku I Have the Pearl!

It’s Lunch!

Longing Plum Among Lilies Repairs Underway Scent of Iris Still Life of Autumn The Current Book Selection The Door Opened The Night Owls Watch Under the Song of the Iris Winter Solstice Winter’s Evening Snow Your Selection?

A Haiku of Birds

8x8 8x6 12x24 20x16 16x8 8x6 12x24 14x11 12x9 6x12 11x14 8x12 12x9 12x9 8x10 16x12 20x16 9x12 18x14 8x6 8x10

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Plum Among the Lilies

oil

11x14

In haiku each line is important, each word a sensory connection to the reader’s imagination and memories.

The simplicity of its rhythm and the space around a poem on a page allow you to focus on it without distraction. So too in my paintings I hope to speak volumes through quiet subjects and atmosphere. To tell a story that resonates within viewers without having to speak a word. I like the air of mystery in my paintings, inviting you to discover what the painting means to you, to find your own connection to the art.

Many of my painting titles are the first or second line in a haiku. You come up with the third.

JHENNA QUINN LEWIS Haiku of Birds

December 14-21, 2018

225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico | 505.983.1434 | www.meyergalleries.com | meyersfnm@aol.com