There is a tender touch to artist Jane Egan’s work. Quite possibly, it stems from her perspective that all subject matter rendered by her hand is portraiture. It is also possible that this artist is in tune with all her subjects, animal and otherwise. Egan’s paintings are featured on exhibit now at the Mattapoisett Library through the end of July.
Classically trained, Egan spent a number of years teaching art at the elementary school level, but Egan has been creating art nearly her entire life. She spent some years being rather famously noted as, “the lady who paints children,” in the Crescent Beach neighborhood where she grew up. “I painted the local children until my own babies came along, and then I painted my babies,” she shared with a little smile in her voice.
Egan trained in the use of oil paints, as well as water colors and others at the Boston University School for Art. But once she found pastels, she never looked back. Using pastels gives the finish works texture, and the crystals in the pigments reflect light, she explained. “I never smooth it out. I leave it to reflect the light. It’s vibrant.” It has been many years since Egan began working just about exclusively in pastels.
A little research tells us that pastels were first developed in the 16th century in Italy by taking pure, powdered pigments and mixing them with enough gum Arabic and fish or animal glue to bind them. Today, instead of animal glue, gum, clay or resin are used to bind the color. Artists Jacopo Bassanoo and Federico Barocci are credited with being some of the first to embrace the use of pastels during the Renaissance.
By the 1800s, pastel meant “soft shade.” In French, it meant “crayon.” The main pastel hues are blue, pink, yellow, green, purple and orange. It is sometimes referred to as Dry Painting. Egan is in rarified company. Edgar Degas’ famous Dancers painting was done in pastels.
For Egan, painting animals and especially close-ups of faces might be called her signature pieces. We’ve seen horses, donkeys, cows, oxen and at least one gorilla lovingly captured in pastels. On exhibit, however, are also boats, as well as a lion, a horse and yes, a cow that seems to want to smile back at the viewer.
“I do portraits,” Egan stated. She believes that portraits are more than just faces of living beings. A portrait can be any subject matter. Yet Egan’s animals do seem to speak to us. She captures their emotions and using the technique of having their eyes lock onto the eyes of the viewer sharing a secret, a wish, a hope. “I hope my animals say ‘… love.’”
Egan wants humans to understand the plight of animals their near total reliance on humans. She shared that some time ago while watching a documentary about animal intelligence she learned that “…even an earthworm makes decisions. … They have feelings, they think.”
This artist isn’t slowing down anytime soon. She continues to find inspiration in the natural world, on the shores of Crescent Beach, in the horse paddocks of Rochester and in her vivid imagination that is full of joie de vivre.
Take a moment and stop by the Mattapoisett Library to see Egan’s “portraits.” Maybe the lion will whisper in your ear.
By Marilou Newell