“Over the years I have painted in many styles and have painted many subjects. I have been influenced by the Impressionists, the Hudson River School, the New York School of Abstract Expressionism and countless of my contemporaries. Today I consider myself primarily a landscape painter and have concentrated on that exclusively for the last 10 years. I credit my education and career as a landscape designer with my preference for landscape painting. Although I was creating landscapes, actually painting with plants, I needed to concentrate on what was there, the natural landscape first. The term “genius loci” meaning the essence of a place was one I was taught to seek, to respect and instill in my design. I keep that in mind with every painting.
Concentrating on a sense of time and place in my work means I do not literally translate the scene before me. I edit to suit my needs but work in a representational style which I prefer. Years ago I would have expressed the scene in a purely abstract style and that abstract editing is still at work in my mind as I compose the painting. The real hook for me is the light and how it affects the color and changes the form before me.
The areas of the world that I most often paint are the Potomac River between Great Falls and Washington DC and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These are the two places I spend most of my life in. I love being outdoors and I enjoy painting plein air. Many of those small paintings serve as studies for larger works created at home in my studio.
I am a juried member of Oil Painters of America, Landscape Painters International and the Salmagundi Arts Club in New York City. I am also a member of the Art League of Alexandria Virginia. I have exhibited my work in France, Turkey and here on the east coast from North Carolina to upstate New York.” Jean Schwartz
Jean Schwartz was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts from Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey, as well as a Certificate from L’Ecole du Louvre, Paris, France. She pursued additional studies in Landscape Design at George Washington University, Washington, DC. She has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions throughout the East Coast.
