Jeannie Donovan

                                                     Artist Statement

I work primarily in watercolor, acrylic, and handmade paper. My paintings explore my life history, growing up on a farm in western Massachusetts, and forming deep connections with and reverence for nature. I am a traditionalist and colorist painter who has developed a style that I call Semi-abstract Realism. Though my work is representational, it is also about areas of abstract texture, color and form. During the 1980’s I learned the art of ‘pulp painting’ at Rugg Road Handmade Paper Studio where I was an apprentice. The ‘painting’ technique never actually involves using any paint, but rather pigmented and finely beaten pulps that are layered and pressed into the final paper painting. Many layers of beaten pulp are applied or ‘couched’ onto a thick base sheet using a vacuum table, screens, and other sheetforming equipment. Materials such as fibers, glitter, sand, and ribbon are often collaged and embedded into the pulp for added surface textures and color. The pulp is created by beating specially treated fibers from the banana plant (abaca) and cotton linters. It is beaten beforehand and pigmented using archival quality pigments and additives, and smaller amounts are ‘over-beaten’ into liquid form and prepared to be applied as detail lines and shapes through plastic applicator bottles and spoons. The paintings are created with heavy textural surfaces and pearlescent pigments, layered and pressed into a ‘glazing effect.’ My work is often inspired by the nuances of light and shadow in nature and architecture at various times of the day. Travel to Nantucket, the Southwest, Mexico, and the Caribbean has been a source of inspiration for many years. The areas of line, texture and color recreate the experience of being in a particular place and observing the natural and man-made forms as they appear in the moment.