Jennifer Cavan | New Mexico
“While earning a degree in history from Brown University, I took art classes on the side. After spending the early part of my adult life in the corporate world in Chicago, I decided to follow my love of art when New Mexico’s clarity of light, rich feeling of tradition, and strong sense of place pulled me ‘home.’ My husband and I quit our corporate jobs and moved to the mountains of northern New Mexico. I began working with oil pastels and, twenty years later, they are still my favorite medium. The buttery feel and the directness of applying the pigment without the go-between of a brush continue to fuel my love for these crayon-like sticks.
“Combining my love of history and culture with my passion for the New Mexico landscape and simple architecture, I create art that reflects the timelessness of that subject matter. Relying on photographs, sketches, and memories of places I have found along the back roads of the American West, I use vibrant, saturated colors, bold compositions, and slightly altered perspectives to present, rather than represent, this special place. My ‘rose-colored glasses’ interpret the scenes with heightened color. Mine is a contemporary depiction of an ageless place.”
Click on the thumbnails below to purchase and/or preview the un-cropped artwork.
Main Gallery:
Mini Gallery: