Jean Hirons Pastel Artist

I paint landscapes because it is to the land I most respond. My paintings are based on strong compositions, limited color, and diverse forms; but it is my love of the subject that really shapes them.  When I paint “pure landscape” – those without man-made structures—I focus on the rhythms of shadows and the emotional content of light.  When I include buildings or other man-made objects, I am interested in the interplay of hard lines and shadows with natural forms. In all of my paintings, I hope to balance detail with mystery, harmony with excitement, serenity with sheer joy!

Having grown up in New England, I am particularly sensitive to the potential beauty of houses, farms, coastal villages. I like old buildings because they have settled into their surroundings and seem to fit so well. I was fortunate to have been raised in the seaside town of Mattapoisett, Masschusetts, where I return to paint each year. I now live in Rockville, Maryland, in the Washington, DC suburbs. Again, I feel fortunate to have Montgomery County’s agricultural preserve nearby. I love the rolling hills of Maryland and Virginia and the all-too-rapidly-disappearing farm land.

Pastel is my medium of choice and the only medium in which I work. I love the immediacy of using my hands rather than a brush, of having colors laid out before me ready to use, and the fact that there are so many kinds of pastels, surfaces, and techniques with which to work. I use many of them!  My philosophy is that the finished painting is what is most important, not the technique used to accomplish it. I begin my studio paintings by examining what it is I want to say, following up with studies of composition, values, and color, to determine the most effective surface and technique in which to say it.

I bring this philosophy to my teaching and presentations on pastel.  I love teaching and sharing my experience with the medium. 

Many artists have inspired me. Among current painters, I particularly love the work of oil painters Richard Schmid and Russell Chatham, and pastelists Duane Wakeham, Susan Ogilvie, Albert Handell, and Richard McKinley. I consider myself particularly fortunate to have studied with some of the greatest pastel artists in the country.

Jean Hirons