JANICE DRUIAN - OIL PAINTINGS

JANICE M. DRUIAN "Living above the Deschutes River in the high desert of Central Oregon, I am inspired by the views just outside my door — vast horizons, craggy buttes, centuries old junipers and the magnificent Cascades Mountains. There is a quiet drama in this area that I try to capture in my landscape paintings. Many of my landscapes start as field sketches or smaller oil pochades. While some of my work is strictly Plein Air, many paintings are finished in the studio and others inspire larger paintings painted entirely in the studio.

I attended the U of O (Masters in Art Education) and was fortunate to study under Laverne Kraus, Tom Fawkes and Frank Okada. There my focus was figurative painting.

More recently I have taken workshops by notable plein air painters, Richard McKinley and Morgan Samuel Price. I am influenced by artists of the early 20th century — Maynard Dixon, William Wendt, John Payne — and more recently by artists like William Wray who captures abandoned parts of the landscape and transforms them into paintings of a haunting beauty.

My landscapes focus on the big skies of the west, and often on those overlooked parts — the ranch out buildings, abandoned bits of life (trailers, boats) that have their own beauty.

My nudes are generally drawn from life and are quick studies of the human form."

Link to www.druianstudios.com