Jane Forth is at Beanetics!

Here we are at Beanetics for the artist reception for Jane Forth. Her encaustic paintings are on display this month through June 24th.

Today is a hot and steamy day so come on by for a glass of ice coffee. It's just as good as their hot coffee, only more refreshing! And the paintings are cooling to the eye.

While we wait for y'all to come on by, I'm going to interview Jane.

JJ: Are these like "plein aire" paintings?
Jane: Actually, they're closer to surrealism. They have much more to do with an inner vision than a photographic reality. By working in the dimension of being inner driven, there is a greater freedom of expression and color because I am not limited by the bounds of reality. I have no problem with realism as long as I don't have to do it.

JJ: Have you always done encaustics?
Jane: I have had an interest in encaustics for a very long time. I was taking an art history class and came across Jasper John's flags. They were encaustics. There was a certain quality about them. Later I saw encaustics that were greek, roman, egyptian in origin. And then I saw the Fayam portraits. They were also encaustics. It was my intention since the late 1980's to work in this medium, after I heard about a company in New York that was manufacturing encaustics.

JJ: What are encaustics?

Jane: Traditionally, encaustics were pigmented bees wax with an addition of damar resin in it. The resin provides flexibility in the application process.

JJ: Is bees wax still used today?

Jane: Some artists use other waxes, but I use bees wax because I prefer natural material. I am grateful to honey bees. To make encaustics, the bees wax needs to be purified so that the yellow hue is removed.

JJ: What medium were you working in before encaustics?
Jane: I've been painting for many decades. But when I was in school, I was studying figurative sculpture, and wax was a material that I worked with regularly. When I first started doing encaustic paintings, I thought of it more as a fluid material. As my work progressed, I have more of a painter's approach.

JJ: What is your process for creating a piece of art?

Jane: In relationship to landscape, nature is not other. Humans are not actors on a stage with the environment as a backdrop. In painting lanscapes, it is a connection with what nature is as a whole. I also explore the human relationship wwith environment because the environment is extrememly important to me.

JJ: How does this relate to your earlier comment about your work being inner driven rather than "plein air"?
Jane: I have lived a rural existence for more than half of my life. Certain aspects of growing one's own food are integrated into this lifestyle. My work overall is oriented to nature. My observation of nature is very important to organic sustainable agriculture and gardening.

When I first moved out to the Shenendoah, I had a conversation with an elderly neighbor who lived in the little log cabin he was born in. "When do you plant corn?" I asked him. "When you hear the whippoorwill." To me that is such a demonstration of how the connection to and integration with the land evolves, how our perception and nature are inter-related. No matter what kind of a day it is, there is always nature to experience, and I am always inspired. It is always overwhelmingly beautiful.