NEXT MEETINGS – September 26, 2024

In-person Demo By Janet Flom:
Figure In An Environment

5:15-6:30pm Paint-In for all members! Bring your own supplies.
7:00-9:00pm In person demo by Janet Flom: Figure in Environment
Roseville Skating Center, Rose Room, 2660 Civic Center Drive, Roseville, MN 55113

Not quite a portrait OR a landscape with figures, painting a figure in an environment allows the artist to tell a story about a person or people without getting into the details of likeness.  It is more about what they are doing, where they are, or some other narrative the artist chooses to tell. Moreover, approaching a painting in this way requires designing the composition as a whole, rather than emphasizing the figure over background.  Simplification, color, value, edges, relationships, etc. — are much more important to weave the figure and ground together.   With figures in a landscape, the figures are subordinated to the “place”  unless the artist has pulled in the focus such that the figures are more prominently depicted.

Janet Flom – Biography

With experience in both two- and three-dimensional materials, Janet Flom’s work appears in public and private collections throughout the country. She has completed over 300 commissioned portraits in oil, watercolor and sculpture; faces and figures remain her favorite subjects. Flom attended the University of Michigan (B.A./ Russian and East European Studies, minor/ Speech and Communications) and William Mitchell College of Law (JD). She practiced as a trial attorney until returning to her interest in art, obtaining a B.A. in studio painting from Minnesota State University Moorhead. As co-owner of StudioWorks, LLC, Flom specialized in site-specific liturgical and public art. She served on the Lake Region Arts Council, was founding president of the Red River Watercolor Society, and is a past recipient of a McKnight-LRAC grant for her art. Her watercolor paintings have earned top honors and numerous other awards in national and international exhibitions, and has earned signature status in multiple prestigious watercolor organizations. Her work has been featured in The Art of Watercolour, (France and Great Britain.) Most recently, Flom was commissioned for three large public art mosaic murals for the MSP International Airport, five for sanford Hospital in Fargo, and four exterior panels for Our Lady of Victory in Bismarck.

Janet Flom Studios are located in Moorhead MN (sculpture) South Fargo (Mosaic) and downtown Fargo (painting) ND., where she teaches and makes stuff.

Website: janetflom.com. Email: janetflom@gmail.com.

 JANET FLOM ARTIST STATEMENT

Watercolor’s versatility in alluding to both two and three dimensional forms in space are what interest me, and I am always looking for opportunities to move between the flatness of the support and more developed areas, all within the same painting. My painting goals involve respecting the paper and the drawing as well as the paint, and to make that paint as freshly attractive as possible without over-handling. I like a watercolor to look like it was painted with water — fluid and immediate, with its own character dominant to my attempts to control it.

This approach to painting can be challenging in the most basic ways. The ratio of water to paint is always an issue. The application of paint to paper in the direct, fresh manner that I admire requires almost performance-level confidence. Also, I find it extremely difficult to accept the marks put down and refrain from fiddling.