Jean was a weaver for many years, designing fabric and clothing. In 1989, her mother, also an artist, suggested that she try watercolors. Jean picked up her first brush and sold her loom!
Her collection of paintings is another branch of her creativity – she has discovered her own voice and design capabilities without using photos as the guide. Her collections display her unique love of texture, color and line combined with stable design – her own muse!
Jean has taken classes at Watkins Institute in Nashville, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville, and Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens in California. She has studied with Zoltan Szabo, Jean Grasdorf, Suzanne Winton, Hazel King, Mary Todd Beam, Anne Bagby and Urban Bird among others. These master painters have contributed to her style and her love of painting.
Jean is a member of the Art Guild of Fairfield Glade, the Watauga Valley Art League, an Artist Member of the Rhode Island Watercolor Society and has been a member of the Tennessee Art League and the Tennessee Watercolor Society. She has received many awards for her paintings and was accepted into the Central South Art Exhibition at the Parthenon in Nashville.
Jean is a teacher of many classes in all different mediums – acrylic, watercolor, and alcohol ink.
Jean has shown her paintings at Local Color Gallery in Nashville, James Ben Gallery in Franklin and Greenville, Tennessee, Tanasi Gallery in Unicoi, Tennessee. The artworks are hanging in many private collections across the nation.