Jill Lear

Jill Lear is a painter whose primary inspiration and subject are ancient trees, deeply rooted in their environment.  Her works are an investigation; a mapping of the experience of being in and thinking about nature.  They also serve as a transcription of the way we process the world around us.  Jill has a systematic approach to her work beginning with the latitude and longitude of a single tree and then considering its space and form. Like Gorky before her, Lear’s paintings are a study of negative space and positive form, finding intrigue not only in the color, line, and subject, but also in the space between forms.  Using vivid colors, geometric shapes and expressive brushwork, Jill’s paintings have a striking aesthetic appeal reminiscent of Cezanne and the Post-Impressionist painters. Her paintings are neither embedded in realism nor committed to abstraction. Rather, her works offer a unique lens into a kaleidoscopic world that shuffles perceptions and preconceived ideals.  Jill’s paintings challenge us to empty the mind of stored images and see the world through fresh eyes. It is precisely this complexity and ambiguity that make Jill Lear's artwork compelling.