Practically born with a crayon in her hand, Jan Blencowe considers visual art her first language. She has been drawing and painting for as long as she has been talking. Her formal training began in New York in high school, all the basics coupled with an unusual beginning at a young age painting in the abstract expressionist style. The fine art program at Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ followed where she received a BFA, magna cum laude, in 1984 with concentrations in painting, color and art history. Her college years also included an internship at the Montclair Museum, Montclair, NJ.
Her most artistically significant continuing study is engaging in painting en situ, outdoors on location learning under the care, nurture and guidance of the greatest, most profound mentor, Mother Nature.
Blencowe’s creative goals include continuing the path forged by the great American landscape painters who so seamlessly merged the grand but temporal beauties of nature and the sublime spirituality present in every living thing. Her passion for connection continues to lead her into the ever evolving world of the internet and social media as a conduit for bringing together artists and art lovers all over the globe.
Her professional associations include signature membership in the American Society of Landscape Painters, and membership in the American Impressionist Society,and the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society. Her work is represented by galleries in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Two of her landscapes were selected to hang in the US Embassy in Honduras. In 2008 her landscape Marsh Reflections was chosen to represent Connecticut in the Paint America MiniTop50 collection. In May 2008 her painting Willard Island Walk was awarded Best in Show at the Tracy Art Center pARTners in Art Show. July, 2008 she won the Jane Stannard Granniss Memorial Award in the Clinton Art Society, 59th Annual Summer Show, and had a painting juried into the New Britain Museum of American Art Show in both 2008 and 2009. In 2007, two of her landscapes were chosen to represent the state of Connecticut in the America’s Top 100 Landscape collection. Her painting November Sunset was also chosen as the representative for Connecticut in America’s MiniTop50 Landscapes Collection. In May 2007 she won Best in Show in the Madison Art Society’s annual juried exhibit.
An instructor at the Tracy Art Center in Old Saybrook, CT since 2005, Blencowe teaches a variety of classes including plein air landscape painting, drawing, and color theory. She is a representative for Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics, demonstrating their products, and she lectures throughout the state on internet marketing trends for artists, as well as being a popular painting demonstrator for art societies and associations.
Jan Blencowe’s work has been written about in the March 4th 2007 issue of USA Weekend Magazine, the July/August 2006 issue of Domino Magazine,
the August, 31st 2006 issue of the NY Times and the July 30th 2006 issue of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Blencowe’s work is in numerous private collections across the US and in Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom. Her work has appeared in Nutmeg Magazine and been featured on book covers in Finland and Music CD covers in Germany.
She paints “en plein air” in all seasons and weather. The beauty and diversity of the coastal Connecticut landscape inspire her. Salt marshes, rocky coast, beaches and upland fields and woods are among her favorite subjects to paint. Her large studio landscapes are often based on field studies and her experiences painting outdoors. Jan’s works are widely collected nationwide and internationally and are in many private collections.
Website
http://www.janblencowe.com
