A Colorful Voice

by Michele Malinchak

The metamorphosis in Jean Childs Buzgo’s art is more intuitive than literal, but the changes in her work are evident and remind one of a quote by French philosopher Henri Bergson: “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”

Since Jean began painting in 2008, her subject matter remains largely the same: river towns in Bucks and Hunterdon counties, farms, waterways, architecture and street scenes. But there is a wide variety of work coming out of her Yardley studio now, including abstract cityscapes of New York City and Philadelphia. When she paints, it’s not so much a particular scene she’s interested in capturing, but the vibe or feeling of that place.

Her style is more expressionist than past impressionist works, visible in the looser, broader brushstrokes she now uses, such as in “Baldpate Vista,” which she painted after hiking Baldpate Mountain in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. Radiant colors are applied using the impasto technique to capture the immediacy of the moment. She moves freely back and forth between expressionism and impressionism and recently has experimented with mixed media abstracts.

“It’s more about dimensions, layering upon layering of materials. There used to be so many rules,” she said. “I don’t care about any of that. Letting it happen, the experience of it is what matters.”

Jean still uses photographs as a launching point for her work and downloads images to her computer from which she paints. Her goal is not in duplicating what she captures on camera and the photos are often altered to exaggerate values and enhance colors. She also lays a grid pattern over the photo to help with the composition. “The eyes go where the lines intersect,” she said. She hopes to entice viewers to linger in the painting and purposely leaves some areas alone, letting their own imaginations fill them in.

A true colorist, her newly expanded palette excites and motivates her current work. “Color is where my voice is,” she said. She mixes some colors but also paints straight from the tube. “I’m impatient when I paint and like to put the pigment down immediately. My body is always trying to keep up with my mind,” she said.

Jean no longer paints on MDF board and now uses stretched canvas which she tones with a neutral background color.

In the work pictured here, “Church Street Forest,” she uses vivid colors to depict the trees in shades of aqua and purple. Secondary to color is the importance of light and the interplay between the two. To achieve depth, more muted tones are placed in the background. “There’s a continual pushing and pulling of background and foreground,” she said.

Sometimes Jean paints over work she isn’t satisfied with and “Church Street Forest” is an example. Here she explains the process:

“I created a painting called “Church Street Snowfall” from a photo I took of Church Street in Lambertville and I wasn’t happy with it, so I gessoed over it lightly, letting some of the underpainting show through, then created an abstracted forest scene from imagination on top. If you look closely, you can see the multiple layers of the original underpainting, gesso and the final oil painting. There are many subtleties in the soft brushstrokes, textures and temperatures of the whites and light areas, juxtaposed with the bold colors of the trees and the undergrowth painted very directly. Somehow, I feel this is the evolution of how the painting was really meant to be in its final form. Aptly named, “Church Street Forest,” it’s a pure representation of the type of new work you can expect to see in my upcoming Solo Show at Silverman Gallery in the spring.”

Jean is a prolific painter, completing as many as three pieces during a good week. She’ll have several paintings sitting around with no specific goal in mind and lets things happen. Sometimes she’ll mix acrylics and oils, even cutting up her paper palette as a base for a new painting. She approaches each painting differently and is never methodical about her work. She keeps things fresh and exciting through constant experimentation, trusting her intuition along the way.

By Jean’s bed she keeps a notepad so she can write things down when she thinks of them including subjects she wants to paint or certain colors to use. “Even though it’s so vibrant in my mind, it’s hard to recall later unless I write it down,” she said.

The self-taught artist views her constant “mental anguish” as the force that keeps her going. “There are so many facets to my personality and my moods,” she said. On a Facebook post she wrote, “My happy place is working and being productive.”

Sometimes that productivity has occurred in the middle of the night, which led her to making jewelry. During a bout with insomnia, Jean found herself waking up with creative energy that needed to be harnessed. She didn’t feel like turning on bright lights to start  painting but could spotlight smaller pieces like necklaces. Little snippets of her painting life go into each one, such as pigments from her palettes, images of her paintings and layered mixed media. The necklaces are then encased in resin. “I’ve always admired sculpture and this is a form that lets me incorporate my paintings.”

With insomnia no longer a problem, Jean has stopped making the necklaces and can now be totally focused on her true love which is painting.

Born in Summit, New Jersey, Jean grew up in Haddonfield and attended The College of New Jersey. She graduated with honors In 1995 earning her BFA and specializing in packaging design. For several years, she worked as both an in-house and freelance packaging/graphic designer for bath, home fragrance and health products.

Recently she was chosen as the Phillips Mill Exhibition Promo Image Artist for her work entitled, “Phillips Mill Summer.” The painting will be used as a publicity piece and there is a video of her accepting the award on You Tube. The 91st annual exhibit will take place entirely online for first time from September 26 through November 1 (www.phillipsmill.org/juried-art-show).

“While I’ve done several paintings of the mill before, this one is my most expressive rendition of it. Using a varied color palette and dappled lighting, brushstrokes were laid down quickly and not overworked,” she said.

In spring of 2021, she is having a solo show featuring 40 plus pieces at the Silverman Gallery in Holicong, PA. “There will be lots of surprises for viewers,” she promised. In addition, she will be part of a group show in June at the Lambertville Chamber of Commerce which will feature more of her abstract work.

In response to the Corona virus pandemic, she set up a table in her backyard, “just to get outside for a while.” Here, she uses less messy acrylics instead of her preferred medium of oil paint. It’s an exercise in letting go, letting the paint drip and blocking out that it will represent something. “I’m not thinking in terms of selling it, I must love the process above anything else,” she said.

Jean has embraced social media and enjoys getting feedback from people on her Facebook page (www.facebook.com/JeanChildsBuzgoArtist). She also has an Instagram account. “I’m inspired by the number of artists on Instagram and it helps me as an artist to see what’s happening out there,” she said.

Her daughter, Emma, who is interested in film making, has filmed videos of Jean’s artistic process for You Tube.

Jean Childs Buzgo’s artwork and jewelry can be seen on her website, www.jeanchildsbuzgo.com and her paintings are displayed on the Silverman Gallery website, www.silvermangallerybuckscountypa.com.