Artist of the Month: Jane Byers

Each month, Patch features an artist who lives in Catonsville.

Name: Jane Byers

Age: 77, this summer, and I'm surprised!

Hometown: Farmington, Michigan

How she decided to live in Catonsville:  My husband and I were married in South Carolina while he was finishing school. The Baltimore area was halfway between our home states.  Tony picked up a Baltimore County Public School brochure while at the University of South Carolina, which led us here. A good realtor introduced Catonsville to us.

Formal art education: I studied oil painting while in high school and have a minor in the arts from Michigan State University.  I've taken workshops and classes through the years and continue to attend demonstrations and workshops from time to time.

Medium she currently uses to create art: I work in watercolor and acrylic mediums.

How, who or what influenced her to become an artist: It seems that I have always drawn.  I still have my first Foster 'how to' books from the '50s and the one on How to Draw Animals was the most used.

Biggest influence in her artwork: I'll say my my mother.  She arranged for me to study oil painting while in high school, she took my sister and me to museums and she encouraged me.

What motivates her to continue creating artwork: I've always enjoyed projects of all sorts.  I like the process of making something from nothing. However, when I first began painting with watercolors, about 14 years ago, I experienced a small panic just before I put paint on the white paper!  But the challenge was stimulating.  There is much pleasure and satisfaction in "catching a moment" in a visual art form that touches the soul.

Favorite artist that influenced you: Carolyn Morena was my first watercolor instructor and I feel she influenced me the most.   She demonstrated a new painting each week and students learned composition, color choices and mixing, negative painting.... the works, as we watched her and proceeded with our own paintings.  It helped that I liked her fresh and inviting style.

 What she likes about being in Catonsville: Both Tony and I are from small towns and we love the convenience of the library, post office, schools 'just down the street.'  Yet we enjoy the cultural opportunities that nearby Baltimore city offers.  There is a great spirit of community in Catonsville and we all know that we are blessed with terrific amenities such as parks and thriving arts activities and events. I was prompted to paint over 30 garden views in our pretty town and spent two years putting my book, Gardens of Catonsville together in order to celebrate how special Catonsville is.

Where has her art  been shown (anywhere, not just Catonsville): I have paintings in the New Castle Gallery in DE and participate in exhibits of arts groups of which I belong: Bethany Beach Watercolor Society, a plein-aire group, Cromwell Bridge Art Festival,'10, Towson Arts Collective, Howard County Center for the Arts, and our own Catonsville Arts Guild which is forming as a result of the last two community-wide art exhibits of which I was the chairperson.  

What her 'day job' is: I've had teaching and real estate careers and continue to teach watercolor painting  at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Towson University.

The next thing she's working on:  I have two commission pieces to work on this summer. One is a house portrait of a Victorian home here and the other is a large seascape I'm painting on a watercolor canvas. I plan to paint some small local scenes as well.  

Jane Byers' book Gardens of Catonsville can be purchased at both Catonsville and Oakdale pharmacies as well as Six Mile Coffee on Frederick Road.