From pink clouds to her glowy lemons, color is key in the landscape and still-life paintings of South Carolina’s Jessica Fields.
The artist: Born in Louisiana, Fields was raised mostly in The Woodlands, TX. She headed north to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where she graduated with a degree in painting.
She returned to Texas, where she earned a master’s degree in art education from the University of Houston. After teaching high school art and art history for six years in West Houston, Fields moved to Greenville.
When her second child was about six months, Fields started painting again, first in a corner of the dining room. Now she has her own art space at Oye Studios, studio space for 12 artists in a former church building in Greenville. She has been a professional art for six years.
The art & materials: Bright, bold landscapes and still-life paintings, using oil mixed with a cold wax medium.
“This gives it a thick impasto texture and a soft matte finish,” said Fields.
Favorite tool: A small, one-inch palette knife 99% of the time.
What’s popular: Small still-life works ($215 to $295).
Inspirations:
- Fauvists, a group of artists (who included Henri Matisse), from around 1905 to 1910, whose artwork is characterized by strong colors and fierce brushwork.
- Richard Diebenkorn, an American painter best known for bringing a West Coast perspective to Abstract Expressionism.
- Dutch memento mori works. This kind of artwork is designed to remind viewers of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life.
Fun or special commissions: In 2021, painted a nine-foot-by-nine foot landscape for a law firm in Greenville.
What’s new:
- Just started working with Anne Irwin Fine Art gallery in Atlanta.
- Participating in the landscape show for Nahcotta gallery and boutique in Portsmouth, NH, in December.
Where to buy: fieldart.work
Get social:
- Instagram: @fieldart
- Website: fieldart.work
