About
The first time I dabbed a brush full of tempera paint onto newsprint in kindergarten, I was hooked. In college I was overjoyed to learn I could forgo academics and choose painting as my major. What luck! I graduated with honors from Mount Holyoke College.
My work received wide exposure for many years in galleries and museums throughout Oregon and Washington. These were primarily coastal landscapes and sunsets in soft pastel and acrylic and may be found in private collections throughout the world.
Upon moving to Hawaii Island, I responded to its profound spiritual emanations by diving more deeply into my own personal journey (illustrated in the Journey to Self gallery). These paintings appeared rather magically on my canvas, like dreams coming into focus. Each contains layers of personally healing information.
The Cloud Studies series followed -- large-scale painterly examinations of clouds and light -- a continuation of the series begun in the northwest, only in oils and influenced now by the quality of light in Hawaii.
After the serious pursuit of clouds, I wanted to have more fun with my art, and allowed light-hearted compositions to form, favoring birds, flowers and odd-looking characters. Wanting more texture in my art, I turned to palette knives and developed a more primitive style.
Returning to the southwest Washington coast and curious to try something new, I discovered Paperclay, and learned how it can be applied to canvas to add dimension to your work. It dries permanent and rock-hard, and gives an intriguing sculptural quality to paintings. These small whimsical pieces are about the birds and flowers in my garden. It is light-hearted, exploratory and child-like in nature, and just about joy.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, I felt the need to paint soothing, quiet landscapes and seascapes of the environment around me, all close to home. As always, my emphasis is on simplified, almost abstract composition and quiet, glowing colors.
In the summer of 2025 my work was honored with a solo retrospective show at the Newport Visual Arts Center, "Jane Luana Stauffer: A Lifetime of Painting."
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