Jennifer L. Hoffman

Artist Statement

“I was born and raised in a Pennsylvania Dutch family in the small town of Ephrata and began drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil. My love of the outdoors was only exceeded by my fascination with art. After a year in college as an English major, my desire to create art took over. In 1992, I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking and Painting from the University of Delaware, where I studied under Stephen Tanis, Robert Straight, and Rosemary Lane. A few years later, I moved to Jackson Hole, WY to explore my budding interest in landscape painting. By serendipity, I found employment as studio assistant for the great landscape artist, Scott Christensen. I learned volumes about painting outdoors and about the business of art in his studio.  In the years since, I have been fortunate to be mentored and befriended by many generous artists, including Ned Jacob, Greg McHuron, Hollis Williford, Kathy Wipfler, and Skip Whitcomb, among others.

My landscapes are created in oil, pastel, graphite, charcoal, and conté. I find great inspiration in subtle light and intimate scenes as opposed to high contrast and grand vistas. For me, painting in the field is where I react to the environment around me, where I observe and collect information, where I absorb the complex beauty of the natural world. But my best ideas seem to come afterwards. Sometimes months, or even years, after the first painting. When an image has distilled in my mind, and with distance from the original subject, my initial idea or reason for reacting to the subject becomes clearer. I am forced to rely on the knowledge I've gathered in my years of plein air work and freed to orchestrate the composition to communicate that abstract idea. The paintings move further away from documentary and more in the direction of poetry. At least, I hope.”

Biography

Jennifer L. Hoffman has participated in many regional and national exhibitions. Her work has been included in the Pastel Society of America (PSA) 40th Anniversary show Enduring Brilliance at the Noyes Museum, the PSA Pastels Only National Exhibition, the Salmagundi Club’s Annual Non-Members’ Juried Exhibition, Oil Painters of America's National and Western Regional Exhibitions, the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painter's National Exhibition, and Door County Plein Air, among others. In 2012, she was nominated by the editors of Southwest Art, American Art Collector, and Fine Art Connoisseur for inclusion in Artists for a New Century at the Bennington Center for the Arts, Vermont. Her most recent awards include the George Inness Jr. Memorial Award for Pastel at the 2012 Salmagundi Club Non-Members Juried Painting Exhibition in New York City, the Pastel Society of the West Coast Award at the 2011 PSA National Exhibition, and Plein Air Magazine’s Award of Distinction at the American Impressionist Society 12th Annual National Juried Exhibition. Hoffman is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and also holds memberships in the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, the Oil Painters of America, and the American Impressionist Society. She shows her work at Turner Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming.

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