Jayne E. Holsinger

Jayne Holsinger left Mishawaka, Indiana, in the late 1970s for New York to pursue a career as an artist. In the early eighties, she studied at the New York Studio School, and later, she earned a master’s degree from the Transart Institute. After moving to Westbeth in 1990 and having to deal with the artificial light of a basement studio, she adopted a new process, which involved creating paintings from her own photographs. Her many subjects include her family members, Mennonites, women drivers, the middle American landscape. Holsinger’s artwork has been exhibited widely both in North America and overseas. She has recently returned from a residency at BigCi in Australia.

Jayne Holsinger’s photo-based paintings channel her years of exploring America by car. Her primary medium for more than a decade has been gouache, a kind of opaque watercolor. “As I work, I allow for the material process of paint itself to transform the image,” she says. “Ultimately, these painted moments extend to their images a felt experience: one of empathy and awe for the environment, a spirit of exploration, and a passion for color and light.”