Artist Jean Jack Paints the Iconic Maine Barn in Bold, Minimalist Paintings

I have with me, my friend, and also artist from the Portland art gallery. Jean Jack. Thanks for coming in today. Thank you, Jean. You are known for Barnes. This is we have behind us evidence of your work. It's a, it's a lovely barn. Can you describe this piece behind me? Well, this is just, uh, we were driving around, I think it's a Northern Maine. Um, this was, uh, quite a few years ago. We took this picture of a farmhouse and barn and it was just sitting there and very, um, just lonely looking, which I kind of liked sometimes. And I, I put water behind it. There wasn't, there was in a field somewhere, but I had decided to put water behind it and it's just one of my favorites. And actually it was in a gallery in Vermont that, well, he got sick and his wife got sick and they closed the gallery and it sat there for 10 years. And, um, I kept thinking we've got to go and pick it up. We've got to go pick it up. Pick, there were 10 paintings there and, uh, we finally picked it up just maybe a couple of months ago. And that's when I added the water. Actually, there wasn't any water in the air before, and I, I think I had to redo the sky and some of the parts of the house, but it's one of my, I love this painting and I know, I thought I'm so glad I picked this up. What is it about this particular painting that you love? I like the farmhouse and actually I started painting farmhouses before I painted barns and that was really my big love. And then I started painting the barns with the farmhouse, but it was always the old farm house that I liked. So What is it about the farmhouse or the barn or this kind of lets lonely by itself in a field? Kind of When I see something I want to paint, I get the hairs on my arms. Just stand up, I just get this shock and I think, oh, I've got to paint this and there's a, a house in, um, anyway, there's a house there that I have painted so many times I painted in the front. I painted in the back, I've painted it on the side and upended a whole white and different colors. And it's just, it was just, just struck me as something I really wanted to paint. Um, Brooklyn, that is the name of the town. I knew it would come to me at some point. Um, so that's what I, I remember when we lived in Greenwich, I used to go out to pump pond Ridge pound Ridge and uh, and to around there and look at photograph things. And the first painting I did of Barnes was actually in pound Ridge and they were yellow barns and they were clustered on both sides of the road. And there was a very sharp curve there and I couldn't find any place to park and I just would wait until nothing was coming and either side of the road and quickly take some pictures and, uh, that painting won some awards and it was in silver, mine, this school that's in Connecticut. That's um, a very good school and I won, um, what did I win? I won the champion paper pro uh, pro first prize. And then our honorable mentioned for one of my other paintings. So I thought, oh, okay. I think I'm on my way. Now, Before you started getting the, um, feeling that these farmhouses, these barns, they kind of electrify you physically and help you to understand what it is you're supposed to be painting. What were your subjects before that? Well, when we lived, uh, in the big house in Greenwich on the water, which was in my husband's family for years, I would do scenes of looking out the window at the water and flowers and fruit and my kitchen. And then I started doing people and, um, I didn't really, I didn't when I finally got to the houses, that's when I thought this is what I want to do. Just somehow stay with me. The other things. I look at them now and I think, mm it's a good thing. You moved on to something else. So Is it a usual thing for an artist to go back to a piece that they've done in the past and add water to it or change the colors? Cause I, I, I think of, you know, you're done, you're done and there you are, but it sounds like you weren't done in this case. Well, no, sometimes I do that. Um, but this one, I just felt like it needed a little something more, but, uh, when I'm done, I'm done usually, but some, I have exceptions to that, but I don't do that every time I do a painting. That's for sure. I'm interested in, um, the number of people in your family growing, hang up because It was a pretty good size, right? How many brothers and sisters do you have? I have, there were, I'm one of nine. And, um, we lived in Massachusetts and Rocklin, Massachusetts, and I had a pretty normal growing up. I, I was a bit of a tomboy and I took climb trees and I irritated my brothers as much as I could. And they did the same to me. And when it was, when I was, um, when I finished high school, I decided I was going to live in New York. And, uh, I just, at one point just got on the train and I went to New York and I got a job. I got an apartment and that's where I lived. And I thought, I never want to leave, live, leave New York. But then I met my husband and we got married and he had to go into the army or he wanted to go into the army and we moved to California. And then I started having children. We came back to New York when he got out of the army and I just thought, I can't do it. I cannot do a brownstone or whatever with, with, I think at that point we had two little babies and um, another one may be on the way. And so we moved out to Greenwich and that's where we want our children grow up. Did you have other artists in your family? My Brother, my oldest brother was a wonderful artist. He was, he was the best artist and, um, he died. He, he died in a car crash. So he was, I think he was like in his late twenties when he died. Oh, that's, that's very young. I know. And one of the brothers of, one of my friends was in that car and he also died. It was terrible. So was there some feeling that you had that maybe you were carrying on this artistic legacy for him? No, I actually didn't think, I didn't think I was a good artist or that I'd ever do art. It was just, um, he was so good that I just sort of didn't think about myself in that way. But when I, we, when I went to New York and, uh, I was working during the day, I went to art students league and took classes at night and that's when I started painting. And, well, my classes were all drawings at that point, but I started painting after that. So how did you get from a place Of thinking that you weren't a very good artist to thinking, okay, I can do this for, for a living. I want to do this. I, I think it was when I was in New York, I started going to the museums and looking at art and that's kind of when I thought this is what I want to do. Did you have that hair standing up on your arms feeling at the museums As well? No, but, um, I was just trying to, I knew I didn't want to work in an office. That was number one. So I was just trying to think of what I would do, but of course I was, uh, then I got married and I was having children. So I had to put everything aside for a while. And, um, but then when we came back after Claude got out of the service, I started thinking about my art and I took classes in Greenwich with different people. And as much as I could I painted, but it really wasn't until, um, when we moved to Santa Fe, I mean, I sure I was, I entered a lot of shows and Jared shows in Greenwich and I got some awards and things, but when we moved to Santa Fe, I thought, what am I going to do now? Because I don't really like these houses. I love the houses, but I don't want to paint them. And then I found this church. It was often Romeroville, uh, and New Mexico, which is near Santa Fe. Um, no Las Vegas, New Mexico. And it was on this, down this dirt road. And I thought to myself, am I, should I be doing this, going down this lonely dirt road to photograph a church who knows the Smith's down there, but it was just, I had to do it. So I went and I photographed the church from the side and the back, excuse me. And then I painted it. And that was a very popular painting. Everybody seemed to love that. So I started there and then I thought, well, I can live in Santa Fe and then I can drive to maybe Iowa and I can find the kind of houses I want to paint there. So that's what I did. And I would go on these trips, I'd take as many photographs as I could. And then I come back and I paint them at Santa Fe and that I had still painted that church. And actually I'm thinking of doing that church for this show that I'm doing coming up. I haven't done it for a long time. It's just a very, it's a very simple Adobe church where the old green roof that's sort of slant, uh, falling apart. It's a metal roof. And I think it would be a fun thing for me to do. So I'm looking back a little bit at some of the things I did before. Is it often that artists will decide to focus solely on, on buildings, on farmhouses, on churches on barns know? No, I was, you know, I was thinking about that because for a while I started doing paintings where the landscape was the biggest part of the painting and the houses were way off in the distance. And, but the landscape was very minimal and the houses still had more detail. So yeah, I think I've always, I don't know. I can't think of anybody that does houses just houses, but I'm sure there are people that do them artists that do them. Well, I know that, um, one of the things that my husband, the art gallery owner, Kevin Thomas, one of the things he likes about your pieces is that they remind him of the Northern Maine farms and his family is from new Brunswick and also from Northern Maine and, and was a farming family. So there's something that really kind of speaks to his, his, his roots speaks to his foundation. But growing up in Massachusetts, is it, was it similar for you or was there any part of that that was in your background, But I guess I just admired, uh, farm houses that, that look the way I paint them. So, um, it really didn't have anything to do with my background. So there's something about them that attracts you and then kind of brings it out to other people who somehow have a connection because When I was in New Mexico and then I was in that magazine country living a couple of times, which totally changed my life, I have to tell you, but I would get letters, emails from people saying, oh, this reminds me of a farm house I grew up in and, you know, will you paint my house and all these different things. So obviously there were people out there that really, really, you know, it, it hit, hit home somehow to them what I was doing. And that just made me want to do it more, you know, I thought, well, you know, this is what I want to do. And it's certainly, there are people out there who, who enjoy it. So I kept doing it, but it's very hard to find houses that I want to paint. It's not like I can just go out the door and I can see a house and think, oh, I'll paint that now it takes awhile. So that's why I do the same house sometimes a few times in different settings because it's the house. That's the most important thing to me When I was, when I had moved back to Maine after medical school, there was a farmhouse that was set back from the road and it was in the same town that we live in now. And I remember I would run past this farmhouse and I just had it in my mind. My family is going to live there someday. My family's going to live there someday. You mean in Yarmouth? In Yarmouth. Yeah. And, uh, and lo and behold, we did. And, and there was something very important about, I think connecting it, it just had a very new England field. Um, and it just felt very much like, like home, like something that had, I be wanting to put my children in it kind of thing. So, and I know there is a nostalgia around that, that people, they feel like they want to go to Maine or one of the new England states and renovate an old farmhouse and, and make it into something that, um, their family can live in. I, I find more of those kind of houses in Maine than I do in Vermont and New Hampshire for some reason. Well, I mean, it, it kind of goes along with this idea that people feel a really strong connection to Maine. You know, they feel this sense of home, even if they've, even if they live here only in the summers, for example, or their families live here in the summers, but there is kind of a feeling of coming home for many people. What is your connection to Maine? Well, my connection really is that, um, many years ago, well, 2005, I think it was that I was in a gallery in Maine, uh, in demo SCADA called the firehouse gallery. And I would come for shows, drive from New Mexico to Maine, with my paintings in the back, photographing along the way and photographing. And so I did a show there and my other connection, I guess, is when I was a child, we used to go to, um, Sebago lake, you know, and that's, it's just, it's funny because every time and I, before we moved here, I was in Maine. I always felt like, oh, this is where I could live. And that's what happened when we decided to leave New Mexico. After 20 years, we, um, clod said, what do you miss make a list? Where do you want to live? And I said, um, I want to live in Maine. That's the only place I want to live. So that was that it was settled. There was a short list. Yes, it was very short because when we moved to New Mexico, we had a long list and it was California or a lot of places and, and, uh, Vermont, but we moved to New Mexico. And that was a good thing for us. Tell me about New Mexico. What was it about Santa Fe that you found so intriguing? Well, number one, the weather is great there. And, um, I, when we lived in New Mexico, I had a gallery, my own gallery, and I really liked, uh, antique furniture with old paint on it. And I could, I had a source for that. So I filled my gallery with, uh, old painted furniture and I had my, my paintings hanging on the wall I had, and that was great, except I had no time to paint anymore. So I did that for a while. And then I finally decided, you know, I really want to paint. So I got a studio on my, I painted in the studio, just got into some galleries around the country and did it that way. And did you have to wait until your children were mostly grown before you could get back into your art? Sure. Yeah. They were, you know, going out with PE, they had friends and they had friends over and, and they had parties that they wanted to go to and parties that we had in our house. And it was just, you couldn't do anything other than be a mother at that point. And that was fine. I would dabble a little bit. We had a group that would meet at our house and, uh, we had a teacher that would come and she would teach us painting. And it was mostly just a social thing. Do you need to have silence in your studio or do you need to have some sort of, um, specific setups so that you can paint what's, what's optimal for you? Yeah, I, I listened to NPR and then when I don't like, what's going on there, I put on some music. This is, uh, it's just, I, I, I think, um, I'm, I probably don't paint with nothing going on. I'm one of these people that likes a couple of things going at the same time and my husband is not, he doesn't like that. So it's only when I'm in my studio that I can do that. What Have you always been like that? Probably, Well, I know me growing up in a large family, it was kind of by necessity that I always needed to know what was going on. Cause I always had, I had nine younger brothers and sisters, so there was always, and I was the oldest. Yeah. So it was always something going on in the left-hand something going on the right hand. So I kind of needed to have eyes everywhere, always pay attention. You know, I don't know if that's, I don't know if that's being part of being in a large family, you know, you and I are both in that same situation or maybe it's being a parent. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I, I was the oldest girl. I had two older brothers and then two younger brothers, you know, so I had, I was surrounded with boys for awhile and they would just, you know, pick on me. Like they always said you were, I was my father's favorite, you know? So I got, you know, they, they would be doing things like going by and giving me a new Dion, my RMR one time they lit my hair on fire. Wow. Did you put it out quickly? No, my mother did. That's what mothers are for, you know, they stay home and they put out their daughter's hair. So, and then, well, just things like that. I don't think it would have really, I don't know. I don't, he remembers Melling a lot of smoke, so I'm not sure it would have gone as far. Well, I have younger brothers and none of them ever lit my hair on fire. So it's that. So something about you and your, um, I guess flexibility of spirit that you're able to think about it with fondness, I guess in, in the, on the other side of it exactly. Did you end up having to help take care of brothers and sisters? A lot as the oldest I did with the last two, uh, my children were, um, twins and, um, I was 13 when they were born. So I had to do a lot of, uh, uh, help to my mother and put, taking them for walks in the stroller and just all those things. Yeah. This all sounds very familiar to me. Yes. Yes. I, I, we had a set of twins. I did not help raise them. They were only 19 months younger, but, um, all of the younger ones that were, were born after me, I had some sort of hand in, in, uh, being part of their part of their lives, which is also interesting to me that you were able to move into being an artist. Because I think in my family, there was a very practical approach to employment. You know, we all knew that we needed to get good jobs and contribute to the world around us, raise our families so that we, none of us, I think we had two of us who were very good at art and neither one of, three of them, only one person went to art school and nobody in our family out of 10 kids ended up being an artist. Somehow there was in your family. Well, my mother, she, she was, uh, a really good artist, although nobody knew it, but she used to draw the babies when they were born after they were more than one, they were aligned, you know, and she was very good. Uh, her father was a taxi dermis and he, he could do like a Stripe bass mounted and, you know, they have to repaint the fish because when, you know, and he was wonderful at that. And they, they would, people from all around would, would, you know, seek him out to, I'm not sure. I, I, like, I remember going to his house and seeing these things up on the walls and thinking, oh, and it smelled like the Mel to hide in his studio, but he was pretty good artists. And my mother and my brother, two of my brothers for hours. What type of, uh, so you said that one of your brothers passed away when he was young. Did your other brother continue to engage in his art as he cuddled up? So He's still, uh, he's, he's still doing, uh, he does, um, uh, fresco, but something like that, he's, he's pretty chorus, but the best one was my brother, my oldest brother. And what did he, what type of art did he do? He could do people and cars and houses, and he did a lot of different things, but they were very good. Does your family keep any of his pieces after he passed away? I don't know. Probably I never saw any, but, And that's a really tragic thing to have happened to a family to lose a child. Even if you said he was 29, right. I mean, that, that really stays with the family for a while. Even a large family. I can't imagine losing any of my brothers or sisters. Well, sometimes happens, I guess. I know he, he was out with the boys and they were probably driving too fast. Well, it says a lot that you, um, even if you're not kind of keeping his legacy alive, the fact that you and your and your other brother are continuing to do art, I think that's really pretty great actually in our family, our family businesses, uh, is medicine, which is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to have doctors in your family, but I often wonder, you know, of the three that in our family who are particularly artistic, maybe even for, you know, what, if our family business had been art, you know, what if we had, you know, that same sort of inclination that you're talking about with your grandfather and your mother, you know, it's interesting how kind of a culture of, uh, of a living or growing up situation can kind of impact somebody's life trajectory. I think we, we all encouraged my oldest brother to go to art school and he fought it and he bought it, but, um, and we just send her everything on him. So I'm not sure it was a different time. I mean, I grew up during, you know, the war was just ending, you know, I remember blackouts and, um, all the things that went with it, you know, squeezing this plastic bag, white, white things inside, and then a little orange ball and you had to squeeze it until it all turned that color for, for butter or margarine. You know, things like that. This came into my mind this morning when I was thinking about, um, growing up and all the things. And then when the war was over the, uh, parade and my uncle was in the parade, and that was kind of important to us. So What did you think you were going to be doing? I didn't really think about it. I just, um, I just knew I wanted to, at some point in my life, I wanted to live in New York city and, uh, it all kind of, uh, so I did do that. I went with a friend of mine and we got an apartment together and she left. She was, she only made it for like three months and I came home from work one day and she was parents were there and she was packing up and leaving and I thought, oh my God, now, what am I going to do? So that was kind of a hard thing. So I went into a, um, one of the it's called, it was called the Anthony House, which was all women. It was a hotel for women. And I lived there because I couldn't keep the apartment by myself. Why did, why was it so important for you to stay in New York? I don't know if you know, it's kind of like when I'm looking at houses, I want to paint when I got to New York, I thought, oh my God, I love it here. I just love it. And I have no idea. It's just something about it spoke to me. Well, like I give you credit for listening to yourself. I mean, sometimes it's hard for people to listen to what their inner self is trying to tell them whether it's what types of things to paint or whether it's where they should live. Well, I, you know, I came from a small town in Massachusetts and it was really, you know, not exciting at all and New York was so I'm sure that was part of the reason. Tell me about, um, the work that you're doing now. What types of things are you focusing on? Uh, I'm trying, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get more minimalistic if I can do it. I'm not sure. And, um, I don't want it, the painting to be boring, but I really want it to be very, um, calm and, and not so much color, uh, just lines and, um, houses that I've painted before, but I want to do them in a different way, but I've been looking at a couple of the ones I've done already, and I'm thinking this is boring, so I'm not going to do them all that way. I'm changing. As I know, and now I'm thinking I need to put some color back in here, so I'm hoping do that, but you know, that, that happens with me. I think I, I, I want to do a painting and I paint start it, and I think it should go one way. And then I come in and next morning and I just wiped the whole thing off and start over and that's usually turns out to be a pretty good painting. So I think I have to go through the process a little bit. So what I'm working on now, a lot of the things I'm working on, uh, are paint houses I've done before, but in a different way. So we'll see how that goes. And then we should take a trip, uh, and the next few weeks up, and maybe we'll go where, um, Kevin is from. I'm not sure that sounds kind of interesting. We haven't gone that far north yet. So you'd end up in a press guile Prescale region if you go that far up. Yeah, no, that's Quite, that's quite a dry rack. Although this time of year, it's very beautiful. And in Northern Maine, Well, we did drive once to, um, Nova Scotia and then, uh, PEI. And I did, uh, quite a few paintings of PEI. I, you know, I photographed many, many houses and farms and there was a feeling there like that. I like, but I want to keep it mostly in Maine this time. So we'll see. Well, I can't wait to, uh, to see your work moving forward and I've, I enjoy it very much. You know, it's funny. I think I want to change the colors and I changed them. I just don't like them anymore. So I guess it's just, I really love these colors that are in this painting and that's kind of way, I, I guess I'll always go or white, just very white. Well, I appreciate your willingness to come talk to me today and I've really enjoyed learning more about you. And about your background. I've been speaking with artists, Jean Jack, you can find more of her work at the Portland art gallery and on the Portland art gallery website. Thank you so much for coming in today and for sharing a bit about your life with me. Thank you.