Artist Jill Carver reflects on her journey from city life to the quiet beauty of nature, and how plein air painting connects her to the landscapes and rhythms that inspire her work. A much sought-after teacher, Jill Carver recently released a two-part video workshop, The Painter’s Toolbox: Tools Explained and Tools Applied (available here).
The Impact of Place for Plein Air Painting
By Jill Carver
I heard from a psychologist once that we’re really defined as individuals when we’re around 12 years old. It’s at that age that we get a sense of who we are and what makes us happy. Interestingly, that’s right around the time I realized that art was a talent of mine, that it defined me. My father’s artistic in terms of woodcarving, my uncle was a painter, and my grandfather dabbled in it as a hobby. So I guess it was in the family genes.
At the same time, I became very aware that I liked being alone in the outdoors. As a family, we used to go camping in Scotland for two to three weeks every summer. It would rain most of the time, but I loved that primitive living outdoors. I loved tracking nature, watching birds, and wandering through the forest by myself. It was never a scary place for me to be. Of course, as a grownup, striving to get proper jobs and so forth, I spent most of my adult life living in big cities — first London and then Austin, Texas.
The noise level, the sense of encroachment, and that feeling of being suffocated that comes when people live on top of each other made me hanker to return to nature, to be able to walk in the forest again. I think we put a lot of energy into protecting ourselves when we live in the city. In Austin, I used to hear leaf blowers around my home and studio, five days a week. I would have to play music to drown them out, and the constant bombardment of city noise started to wear me down.
I’ve been in the United States for over 20 years now. I feel extremely fortunate to live in a place where Mother Nature is very real, very present. Where I live, we have beautiful seasons, but winter is demanding, with 175 inches of snow each year. People who live here are keenly attuned to nature and the weather; it can change your day’s plans very quickly.
I love meeting neighbors when I’m out walking my dogs; the first thing we talk about is, did you see that the Canada geese have arrived? Or, did you hear the first frog chorus of spring? We’re all so tuned in to those natural rhythms that it fills me up every day. As an artist, I can’t wait to get up each morning and see what’s outside. It’s always different, and it’s magical.
I think we’re forever seeking ways to get back to what made us happy as a child. And this is a happy place for me. The motifs and narratives of this landscape, in terms of painting ideas, never end. The first year we were here, I was invited to contribute to a museum show in Bozeman [Montana], called “Artistic Horizons.” Without even thinking about it, I submitted five paintings, four of which were done within 200 yards of my front door, proof that the place where you live filters through to what you want to paint.”
Helpful Links
- Continue reading in PleinAir Magazine (November/December 2024)
- Artist Website: jillcarver.com
- Browse more free articles here at OutdoorPainter.com
