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Jean Hess - Homage to Matisse
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About the Art:
The front and back of the violin represent Matisse's grand decoration phase
when he painted "Dance II" and "Music". The latter is a static composition
from which I adopted two of the five musicians. The former has a wonderful
looseness and freedom of movement. The dancers exhibit a bacchic revelry.
Matisse was considered one of the twentieth century's greatest colorists.
His radiant, almost sonorous colors become the equivalent of music. I incorporated
figures from these two paintings because of the connection to music and
the inclination to dance or otherwise move when music is played. The
rest of the violin is decorated in the style of the cutouts done by Matisse
in later life. The vibrant colors and symbolic forms have a feeling of
movement, and to me express the joy, rhythm, and universal appeal of music
and dance.
The winning raffle ticket for this violin was drawn on
November 10, 2004.
About the Artist:
Jean Hess has been drawing and painting all her life. She sold her first drawings when she was in high
school in Columbia, SC: a pencil sketch of JFK and one of Jackie. After graduation she studied art for one semester
at Sunderland College of Art in her native England. Then she was a fashion illustration major at Richmond Professional
Institute for 2 years.
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Marriage and children became her next art project thus delaying college graduation for twenty years.
To make up for lost academic time, Jean earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts and a Master of Education degree
from William & Mary. Since then she has painted regularly using first oils and now acrylic paint and occasionally watercolors.
For almost 2 decades she has painted with a group of local artists led by Barclay Sheaks. So as not to become bored with or
formulaic in her approach to subjects, she varies her subject matter, palette and canvas size. With fresh colors and pleasing
compositions, Jean strives to evoke feelings of serenity and pleasure in the beauty of everyday objects or scenes. Her works
include landscapes, still lifes and people and in are in the collections of many art enthusiasts.
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