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"Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it." Stephen Pressfield, The War of Art. |
As a child growing up in Arlington, Texas, Elaine Jary loved to draw. Many hours were spent on her first art projects: drawing and coloring paper dolls, and then designing extensive wardrobes for them.
Throughout high school she took art electives. After high school graduation she attended the University of Texas at Arlington, earning a B.A. in Graphic Communication. Her love of art stayed with her but was put on hold for many years as she worked in various administrative and marketing roles for the next 30 years. An occasional art class reminded Jary that she could always return to creating art, and that the enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment when creating art was still a part of her. In 2010, the timing was right, and Jary subscribed for six months to a website that provided unlimited access to various artists’ tutorials. Then she took an online watercolor class from Joyce Faulknor, a California artist. She bought a watercolor workbook and completed all 12 painting tutorials. Then she took an in-person workshop from Janet Rogers, which inspired her to keep learning and practicing. Other workshops followed in the next few years, each one contributing to her bank of painting knowledge, techniques, and creative ideas. She learned from Fealing Lin, Frank Eber, Mary Whyte, Don Andrews, David Rankin, Morten Solberg and others. Jary has learned to view the world through an artist’s eye, and is drawn to images that she finds interesting, dramatic, emotional; images that convey the beauty that is all around us, waiting to be interpreted by the artist. A few years ago she became interested in birding, and this new passion is reflected in her art. In the summer of 2020, she started her “Covid Project”, painting a series of 5”x7” birds in watercolor from photographs she took. Each unframed painting was priced at $35; $5 was retained for postage and handling, and $30 was donated to a local food bank. Over 65 paintings were sold throughout the year, and $2,000 was donated to the food bank. After discovering a rookery in Dallas where great egrets and other waterbirds nest each spring, Jary began a series of paintings depicting great egrets during breeding season. The grace and beauty of these birds continues to fascinate her. She uses her own photographs as references for her paintings, and her interest in photography has grown over the years. Her process that has evolved includes spending time in nature observing beauty, capturing moments through photography that might become paintings, and creatively converting the experience into a painting that expresses the artist’s vision. Sharing this vision with others through her paintings completes the process, reinforcing the idea that we all benefit from seeing the beauty that our world has to offer. |