Jenifer Gilliland
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My earliest memory of
using watercolors was being told as seven year old that a mouth I had painted on
a portrait was “waaaay” too big. This
early critic silenced my inner artist for many years. One day in graduate school, I interrupted a discussion
between two of my professors who were discussing watercolors. I made the comment that “I can’t even draw a straight
line” and that I was sure I could never do watercolor or any art for that
matter. One of the professors said,
“You don’t know that!” and repeated it several times over my
protestations.
It took a period of being
“less than fully employed” after college to find out he was right and I was
wrong. Boredom/desperation drove me
to try any cheap Community Ed class available.
I stumbled into a portrait drawing class, and learned that surprise,
surprise people’s eyes are actually halfway down the middle of the head.
The mysteries of the universe were revealed.
I started adding color to
my life after visiting Italy and frustrating myself with two Community Ed
watercolor classes. Out of
desperation I turned to Kathy Wren, who is the proprietor of the Drawing Room
here in Boise. Two classes with her
and I saw a dramatic increase in my ability to manipulate watercolors. I have eclectic tastes and I think that is reflected in my
subject matter. I like to paint
people, but lately have done a lot of flowers because I am the official artist
of the recent Gilliland ancestral home addition.
Painting watercolors has a “Catch-22” quality to it in the sense that
one of the things I like best about watercolor is also the thing I like the
least--the unexpected effects. Watercolor
is hard to control, but when the stars are aligning and the moon is full you can
sometimes get serendipitous results.
I like painting because it
gives you a tangible product when you are done. It is not always clear in my current career whether at the
end of the day I added value or not! I
enjoy the creativity it takes to add more (feeling, color, characters, light,
etc.) to a picture than is there to start with.
I am a member of the Gypsy Gallery and have participated in the Emerging Artists program at Boise’s Farmer’s Market for two years running.
to purchase art, email Jenifer