Jayne Shoup

My paintings usually depict scenes or objects from my Middlesex, VT neighborhood. Each standing (or slumping) barn, towering tree, or unfolding flower in my work reflects the serenity and beauty of Middlesex.
My abstract flowers, landscapes, and aging buildings typically begin with a series of thumbnail sketches. I pare away excess details until my subject's essence is revealed. Dense layers of pastel are applied to cotton or sanded paper in a style--vibrant colors, flat perspectives and exaggerated forms--reminiscent of the early Modernist painters, O'Keeffe, Dove, Bluemner, and Marin.
I am President of the Vermont Pastel Society, a member of Vermont Crafts' Council, Northern Vermont Artists Assoc., Art Resource Association. When I'm not painting I enjoy yoga, bicycling, Nordic skiing & skating, and birding. My favorite getaway is New Mexico.

BA (1985) & MA (1987) in Literature, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PAMy work has been exhibited at Studio Place Arts, T.W. Wood Gallery, Helen Day Art Center, Southern Vermont Art Center, Bryan Memorial Gallery, Artisans' Gallery, Bennington Center for the Arts, and Arts Alive Festival--all in Vermont. Center for the Arts at Old Forge, NY exhibited two of my paintings in the 7th Annual National Pastel Exhibition, 2010. "Jack-in-the-Pulpit" won the H.K. Holbein Award in the New Hampshire Pastel Society's 2010 National Juried Exhibition at the Discover Center, Portsmouth, NH.