Janet Vanderhoof: Painter and Colorist

Today’s featured painter is Janet Vanderhoof, a California artist whose paintings are full of color, life, and often brilliant sunlight.

I’m not sure what it is about vineyards, but in the hands of capable artists they always seem to make for fantastic paintings. This first piece by Janet, A. S. Kieken Vineyard, is a lovely burst of color and movement, with sweeping lines and undulating hills.

By using alternating pinks and greens Janet creates an almost palpable vibration between the two colors, presenting viewers with visual images so “bright” that our minds instinctively accept it as though what we’re seeing is actually lit by sunlight.

In fact, in all of her paintings Janet is very deliberate in using the hues themselves to enhance the movement and emotion of a piece.

So many golds, yellows, oranges and deep maroons make up I Am the Vine 1 that it becomes an intricate dance of swirling leaves and windblown branches.

Janet’s curving, looping leaves are (in many cases) simply splotches of vivid color. Massed together or suspended in midair however, those spots of color are as believable to our eyes as real leaves actually fluttering from limb to the ground.

It’s more of a moment explained in paint, rather than an image replicated.

And in this last painting, Rolling Hills, notice the brilliant fuchsia, orange, and magenta placed just behind each clump of trees, simply to enhance the greenery.

It’s that kind of intelligent color use that makes Janet Vanderhoof’s paintings so exceptionally interesting—and definitely worth a further look.

To see more of Janet’s artwork, visit her website at www.janetvanderhoof.com.