ELMORE, Ohio — Landscape artist Jennifer Sowders' studio may not be fancy, but it is a home among the woodsy Ohio vistas she likes to paint.
The name of her MONgallery and Art Studio in Fostoria has nothing to do with pretensions of the French but refers to the "Middle of Nowhere," as in rural America.
“I can just walk out of my studio and nature is all around me,” said Sowders, a 1994 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, who currently has a selection of works on view at the Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore, Ohio.
Sowders' path during a career in art has been as meandering as a nature trail where she keeps discovering new aspects to herself.
IF YOU GO What : Jennifer Sowders solo landscape art exhibit
Where: Schedel Arboretum and Gardens
Address: 19255 W. Portage River South Rd., Elmore, Ohio
Tickets: $12 for adults
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; noon to 4 p.m. Sunday
Visit: schedel-gardens.org While painting was not on her mind during childhood, she grew to appreciate Ohio's landscapes as her family trekked from one state park to another whenever her father gathered them on vacation. When taking an art elective in junior high school, she noticed her lines grasped a realism that surpassed that of her classmates' works.
While attending college she majored in illustration and advertising design, but then discovered a penchant for fine arts. By 2016, she was a full time artist. She has primarily pursued watercolors but, during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, kindled some good vibrations with acrylic paints.
“I could not go plein air painting with friends,” Sowders said, so she turned her attention to using up some acrylic paint she had left over from an earlier mural project for a dentist's office.
“I thought I was getting rid of it. I was squirting a tube straight onto the canvas and using a palette knife,” said Sowders, who then still entered an early result of her experiments, called Riverbend, in some art shows.
That image from Riverbend Park in Findlay just kept winning. She had to buy more acrylic paint. Now she balances between softer watercolors and bolder acrylic projects.
“I felt like Van Gogh was smiling down on me,” Sowders said in her description of the initial piece.
She says she is not only drawn to the beauty of a scene, but is careful to include beckoning elements, such as pathways, with light and shadow, repetition, and depth.
“I am polarized by scenes that make me forget my troubles, and I feel enveloped, even if just for a moment,” said Sowders, explaining she cannot pick a favorite from among her paintings, but each one speaks to her of a juncture in her life at that time.
The artist is showing more than 20 acrylic and watercolor pieces through June 13 at Schedel’s Brown Welcome Center McAlear Gallery.
About 100 people attended a meet-the-artist event when the exhibit opened last month, according to Veronica Sheets, event and development coordinator at Schedel.
“Everyone is amazed at her skills,” said Sheets, exclaiming over the depth of Sowders' landscapes. “You feel like you could walk into the painting.”
Sowders, whose work is featured in the Collector’s Corner at the Toledo Museum of Art and also in the collection of the Ohio Arts Council, most recently took second place with an international award in the landscape division of Artists Magazine 40th annual Art Competition for her piece called Brecksville Ridge, which depicts a scene from Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
“While the grandeur of nature is often portrayed in bold vistas, it can also be conveyed in a more intimate presentation,” John Salminen, one of the competition’s jurors, said. " Brecksville Ridge draws us into the scene with intriguing texture and fleeting light and shadow. Rather than experiencing this scene from afar, we are immersed in it. We are transported from impartial observation to being present in the moment."
Sowders remembers the magical play of the light the day she was hiking through the northeast Ohio park.
“The trail we took was at the top of a ridge that had steep slopes on both sides. I found myself drawn to the dancing patches of light that slipped through dips in the ridge and set the scape aglow,” she said.
The artist also has been awarded the grand prize in International Artist Magazine's Landscapes #141 Challenge and will receive a two-page spread in the magazine as well as a four-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine.
As Schedel installs Lake Erie-inspired work by husband-and-wife team Steve and Linda Kelley of Port Clinton later this year, Sowders will next be exhibiting at the Marcia Evans Gallery in Columbus during July and August.
“What is unique about Jennifer’s artwork is that she is well trained, talented, and passionate about what she does,” said Evans, who has worked with a wealth of modern artists during her career in the art industry from Robert Natkin to Jim Dine. “Her ability to capture natural landscapes, in such a realistic way, is simply amazing.
“She is excellent at what she does, sometimes even capturing a photographic-like image in her paintings,” the gallery owner said. “I’m looking forward to Jennifer’s show of truly beautiful scenes.”
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