Jennifer Clement is just as impressive on paper as she is on canvas. To start, she earned a BFA in painting and a Teaching Degree of Advanced Standing from Montserrat College of Art, graduating Summa Cum Laude. In addition, she holds an AAS in Marketing/Communication from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, New York. If that isn’t enough, she received an AAS in Interior Design from Newbury College in Boston, Massachusetts, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Although when asked, these degrees are not what she is all about. “It was alive, and fun, and wonderful, but didn’t fulfill the need to create something from nothing,” says Jennifer.
“Each piece starts with a feeling,” she says when asked about the content of her work. “A memory and a palette. Yet, often times it begins to dictate to me how it wants to shift and move. I have to let it happen.” Always deeply rooted in nature, she enjoys where her work takes her. An escape. Sharing her work, for Jennifer, is a way to also share this escape with others.
Jennifer spent summers in Wells, Maine with her grandfather when she was young. She later returned to the Maine coast as a teenager for six summers in a row. “My boyfriend’s aunt had a house in Biddeford Pool,” remembers Clement. These experiences were just the beginning of her love affair with the ocean. “There is a peace and balance when I am around the ocean.” This attraction fills her canvases, maybe not with a single beach or certain skyline, but with an emotion, a connection, a bond with the coast. “There is a piece of my soul in every work.”
Clement describes her work as somewhere between Tonalism and Luminism. Her love of the misted landscape, a classic characteristic of Tonalism, sometimes leaves behind the dark, neutral hues of the late 1800’s for a brighter, bluer sky. We see this in pieces like Day’s End. However, her brilliant use of light sways her work more toward Luminism. A popular style in the mid to late 1800’s using the effects of light in a landscape. This is especially true in her nightscapes with the use of fading light, as in Embrace. Either way, the blend of these two styles leaves us with a canvas that is difficult to walk away from.
Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture is truly delighted to have Jennifer as part of our gallery family. Our new collection of her work is presently on display at 14 Western Ave, Kennebunk. We welcome you to come in for a visit. As always, you can view her work on her Artist Page on our website. We look forward to having Jennifer visit the gallery this summer and will keep you posted on any opportunity to meet this amazing woman.
Please click the icons below to share on your Facebook page or Twitter feed.