Jane Cook’s work is influenced, first by the astonishing beauty of the natural world, but also by the mid-century abstract expressionist and colorfield painters, such as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell and William DeKooning. For the past 50 years, she has shown her work in Santa Fe, Boston, New York and on the west coast.

What she enjoys most about working with mineral pigments is the unpredictability of the ways they interact. This makes the process of painting more difficult but introduces a bit of mystery, similar to what John Cage referred to as “chance operations.” The act of painting becomes a conversation between herself and the materials until they reach an agreement. She follows the paint and is not concerned with imperfection. Imperfection is a kind of beauty, and vulnerability. 

Rather than a portrait of nature, she is working with energy, form and movement. There is intention. But the paintings, when successful, are meant to feel like the absence of human intent / the opposite of words.

Why the landscape? The earth is the healing, always beyond our knowing and control.