Autumnal Light

The landscapes and nature scenes of painter Jennifer Sowders are irresistibly tactile, filled with varying textures that seem to leap off the canvas.

Having grown up on a dead-end road in the countryside, the northwest Ohio-native spent a lot of her life studying nature, a quality evident in her artwork today. Currently living in Fostoria, Ohio, the artist creates her woodland impasto pieces with just a palette knife, acrylic paints and a silicone-tipped tool for intricate details in smaller areas, often leaving the canvas white from the start instead of blocking in her tones.

“A lot of what I do, I do to impair my natural desire to paint too realistically,” Sowders explains of her process. “Also, an impetus to not use a brush plays a big part. I often begin with a white ground so that it will force me to make more marks. More marks means more exciting texture. It forces me into the impressionism I love.”