Jane Theodore

Jane Theodore’s paintings create mysterious spaces for the eye and mind. Perspectives flatten and curve behind a cloud of ephemeral gesture and mark making. Her abstract paintings are a spontaneous, passionate response to her internal world and the external natural environment. She explores these terrains using high-intensity saturated colour, vigorous gestural marks and dynamic compositions.

Theodore describes her process: “I paint without preconception. I strive for what Buddhists describe as “no-mind” – a state that is essentially free of thought and planning. I respond to what is happening in the work. The physical act of creating is an integral part of my process – the gestures, the addition/subtraction of colour, form and line. And while I am influenced by my environment – cloud formations, the shifting palette of an evening sky, unexpected combinations of colour and light, texture and patterns – my greatest effort is to get out of the painting’s way, and allow it into being.”

Theodore includes spontaneous, personal but considered mark making in her work. Linear elements and active surfaces mark Theodore’s painting; her work can be read as an exploration of the world and of painting itself, informed by experience, memory, and emotion.

Jane Theodore lives and paints in Toronto, Canada.