Featured Member: Jody Regan

Jody Regan, Oil and Watercolor Painter

"Painting brings me great joy, even when it is a struggle.  Painting connects me with my now-deceased artist grandfather and mother, and with my artist community.  Painting requires intense thinking and concentration, which I love.   Painting is my meditation."

Jody is a long standing member of Girls Just Wanna Paint.  In her 'spare' time, she is a full time math teacher and graduate student, mother, wife and cat-mom from Marshfield, MA. 

While a Mathematics student at Boston College, Jody took a drawing class each semester.  In her 30's, while employed as a software engineer, she started studying painting. She first studied with her mother, an accomplished painter, and then with local artists Diane Scott and John Kilroy.  She taught for a number of years at the North River Arts Society in Marshfield, MA. She also has professional associations with Academic Artists and Lyme Art Association.

An award winning painter, she describes her style as Contemporary Realism, in that her subjects are painted in a representational manner, but she works hard to say what she has to with minimal number of brushstrokes.  Favorite subjects are architecture, Maine and Boston scenery.  She says "My favorite subjects have changed over the years, however, I am always drawn to architecture.  I love the relationship of buildings to one another and to the surrounding sky.  I am excited by the spaces within, between, and surrounding buildings, and their quiet presence above and around the activity and sometimes hubbub of people who use them"

Regarding the tools of her trade Jody loves 

"gessoed fiberboard.  I use several coats of gesso, with a light sanding in between.  I like the way the board pushes back against the brush.  My go-to color is cadmium red light.  Can’t live without it.

Another favorite tool is my no-bleed fine point marker, which I use in my sketchbook before applying watercolor to the drawings.   Sketchbooks are always Aquabee"

Looking toward future plans, I am so enthralled with the city lately that I intend to put together a series of Boston paintings, “streetscapes” focused on the everyday scenes we often pass without noticing them.  The juxtaposition of light and dark faces of the buildings is fascinating."

And how she feels about Girls Just Wanna Paint?

I am blessed be associated with this generous, creative, brilliant group of women.  Each of us is very different, with full lives.  Our monthly paintings and meetings are a great joy and connection in my life.  And, with my busy working life, the monthly deadline is a great motivator.  

Find Jody's work here:

JodyRegan.com

JodyReganArt.Blogspot.com