Artist Information
Bio
Jean Denney is an emerging painter who works in watercolor, ink, and oil. Her love of the human figure stems from a lifelong study of dance. Her focus shifted from visual art to performing arts when offered an opportunity to tour with a dance company while still in college. After a 30-year career in dance, she returned to visual art making and began painting landscape en plein air, messing around in her studio, and seeking out figure drawing opportunities. Creating communion between the somatic human experience and living landscape drives her landscape work which has been shown in Kansas City, MO, Topeka and Lawrence, KS. Her still life paintings and figure drawing have been shown in Boston, MA, and Baltimore, MD.
Process
For me, painting is like dancing; it's never the same twice. I practice soma-aesthetics. That is to say, I simultaneously shape my bodily awareness with the conscious intention to express and create art. For me this feels like communion; being fully aware of myself while also being with the liveness of the environment. It’s a wholistic approach to making meaning of the moment, in the moment. I love color, light, and atmosphere all of which vex and intrigue me, seduce me really. Every time I paint, I feel grateful to be a sentient being on this remarkable planet.