By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the first of two 12-piece exhibitions of works by contemporary American landscape painter Jane Penfield (born 1954 in Connecticut, USA). 

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Award-winning artist Jane Penfield is drawn to nature, as well as to the human influence on it. She is especially attracted to elements that evoke light, drama, and emotion. Her work is an impression of light and life as she has experienced it through walking, travel, and direct observation.

 

Jane holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College and a Master's degree from the Hartt School of the University of Hartford. She was profoundly inspired by the beautiful New England landscape of the Pioneer Valley, a place that nourished her intellectually and creatively, helped form her values, and started her on her artistic path.

 

Jane has worked professionally as a choral director and administrator of nonprofit arts organizations, in addition to being a visual artist. Now able to focus primarily on pastel and oil painting, she finds great joy in the creative process and in teaching.

She says, "Like meeting a long-lost relative, I recognize the same elements familiar to me in music: composition, form, tonality, harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, and dynamics. Good habits of study and practice are essential. Painting, like conducting a choir, involves starting from scratch, observing, identifying problems, fixing them, and always trying to make it better, in order to create and present something beautiful in the end."
 

Memberships and Affiliations

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- Connecticut Pastel Society, Signature Member

- Salmagundi Club, Elected Member

- Academic Artists Association, Elected Member

- Pastel Society of America, Juried Associate Member

- Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod

- Connecticut Plein Air Painters

- Lyme Art Association

- Artists Open Studios of Northeastern Connecticut

- Tolland County Arts Association

- Vernon Community Arts Center  Artist Member and Board of Directors

- West Hartford Art League

 

Awards

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- Pastel 100 Competition, Fourth Prize, Still Life & Floral 2017

- Honorable Mention, Lyme Art Association 2017

- Honorable Mention, Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society 2017

- Honorable Mention, Arts Center East, On and Of Paper, 2016

- Passion for Pastel Award, Pastel Society of New Hampshire 2016

- Honorable Mention, Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society 2016
- Merit Award, Pastel Painters of Maine International Juried Exhibition, 2015

- Second Prize, Tolland County Art Association Juried Show, 2015

- Best in Show, Vernon Community Arts Center Multimedia Exhibit, 2014

- Honorable Mention, Academic Artists Association National Exhibit 2014

- Pastel Society of America Award, Connecticut Pastel Society Members Show 2013

- Allied Artists of America Award, Connecticut Pastel Society Renaissance in Pastels 2010

 

Education

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- Bachelor of Arts, Mount Holyoke College

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- Master of Music, Hartt School of the University of Hartford

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- Art Study with Nancy Marshall, Shauna Shane, Alain Picard, Sandra Wakeen.

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- Workshops: David Lussier, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Diana DeSantis, Barbara Courtney Jaenicke, Jeanne Rosier

Smith, Tony Allain, William T. Hosner, Nancie King Mertz

 

Commissions

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- First Lady of Connecticut, The Governor's Residence - Sherwood Island State Park landscape

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- Prudential Retirement, Hartford Office - pair of landscapes of Hartford parks

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-Private Clients 

 

Recent Exhibitions

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Academic Artists Association National Exhibit  

Artists Open Studios of Northeastern Connecticut 

Arts of Tolland

Charter Oak Cultural Center 

Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society

Connecticut Pastel Society  

Lyme Art Association 

Maple & Main Gallery

New Britain Museum of American Art, Nor'Easter

100 Pearl Street Gallery, Greater Hartford Arts Council 

Office of the Secretary of the State, Connecticut State Capital 

Open Studios Hartford 

Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod 

Pastel Painters of Maine

Pastel Society of New Hampshire

Prudential, Hartford 

Robinson & Cole

Salmagundi Club, NY

Tolland County Art Association

Town & County Club 

Vernon Community Arts Center 

West Hartford Art League

Wethersfield Heritage Arts Exhibition 

Wood Memorial Libary, South Windsor