HOLLIS JEFFCOAT
Biography
"My life and my art are inseparable."
Hollis Jeffcoat
scroll
A FORAY TO FRANCE: A CAREER BEGINS
Hollis Jeffcoat and Joan Mitchell. Vétheuil, France, 1976-1979
"Joan would say 'no matter what, you get up everyday and paint'."
- Hollis Jeffcoat
Hollis Jeffcoat fresh out of art school moved to France to teach with Elaine de Kooning at New York Studio School, Paris and began her career as a painter. As Jeffcoat always said "it hasn't always been easy, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
It was through de Kooning that Jeffcoat met Joan Mitchell during a visit to her studio in 1976. What ensued was a three-year mentorship with Jeffcoat living and working at Mitchell's and a life-long friendship.
They had much in common, one being synesthesia. For Jeffcoat, sounds, numbers, days and smells all evoke colors. She discovered she had synesthesia when she got into a terse discussion over the accurate color of a weekday with Mitchell. Mitchell, who also had the neurological gift informed her that "not everyone" associates days as certain colors. "I didn't know everyone didn't see color the way I did," Jeffcoat says.
The two small painting were painted during this period (1976-1978) in Mitchell's studio. While the smallest one, her first as a professional artist was painted in Paris when she first arrived. The feel is similar, but notice the difference in color - the increased vibrancy and the more sure handed application of color creating a subtle imposto. The next leap in Jeffcoat's style is seen in the large Vetheuil II. Large flat surfaces, more layering and the beginning of her ever enduring search for space through color.
Jeffcoat, who acknowledged the truth to Mitchell's reputation as difficult, said she was never the recipient of her wrath, in fact, .. Joan was very generous. She gave me paints, canvas and her studio to use. I painted all day and she painted all night.· Jeffcoat
attributes Mitchell with helping her learn what it meant to live an artist's life. "Joan would say 'no matter what, you get up everyday and paint." Jeffcoat painted or drew daily for 42 years until the last four months of her life.
A LIFE AMONG THE GREATEST: AN ARTIST IN HER OWN RIGHT
Hollis Jeffcoat and Jean-Paul Riopelle. Estérel, Quebec, Canada, 1978 - 1987
"What makes good art? What makes proper art? What makes me a good girl? What makes me make proper paintings?
There is no good girl. There is no proper painting. There is only the personal and what you really feel."
- Hollis Jeffcoat
With Jean-Paul Riopelle, the famous Canadian painter, Hollis divided her time between Montreal and France. Enthralled by the big skies, glistening snow and new wildlife of Canada, Hollis painted it all. Her palette changed and her brushstroke became more gestural, perhaps from the influence of Riopelle's style. Her earliest paintings were landscapes of Estérel, the village where they lived. This became one her most enduring subjects of Canada.
The three paintings in this exhibit, "Rose in the Moonlight" (1986) are from her "Midnight Series". Hollis would take late night walks crossing fields of snow and frozen lakes, and make her way through the woods with her friend's dog whom she named Rose. In the 15 paintings she made about these adventures, she captured in strong, rigorous brush stokes and a limited palette, the mood, light and her own solitude. While dark they reflect Hollis' natural optimism, which she often expressed as "the light at the end of the tunnel."
"There were two important influences on my work during this time: one was associations with great contemporary artists - Miró, Francis Bacon and Sam Francis, among others, and the greater was the amount of time I spent in nature in France and Canada. At the end of this time I was a confirmed abstract landscape painter."
A NEW BEGINNING: CITY LANDSCAPES
Hollis Jeffcoat. Paris, 1987 - 1990
"I understood that the architecture, the park and the buildings were not separate, but more that they went on like entities/creatures that dwelled In the same space. There was no separation."
-Hollis Jeffcoat
In the end the relationship with Riopelle, Hollis moved to Paris. Here she lived in the studio of Francis Bacon at 14 rue de Birague on the Place des Vosges.
Her painting returned to more representational work, as she always did when trauma or drama entered her life, in order to ground herself and "get her footing." Her paintings and drawings of this time were architectonic depicting the structure, form and the relationship of the elements.
''In the 1990's I changed from depicting landscape to seeing the trees in relationship to ground and sky, as all together. While there were inklings of this change surfacing in my Prospect Park, Brooklyn paintings in the late 80's. The transition started with Place de Vosges. I understood that the Architecture, the Park and the Buildings were not separate, but more that they went on like entities/creatures that dwelled in the same space. There was no separation."
''Instead of seeing them as individual objects, I saw them all together in a dance and the more I could feel the dance then the greater they became as One. They became entities/ characters, a major shift that would influence the entirety of my future work.''
RETURN TO THE USA: A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE LIGHT
Hollis Jeffcoat. Brooklyn 1990-1997, 2005-2008, Southwest Florida, 1997-2005 and Sanibel 2008 - 2018
"Light is the most important part of my painting. Even when I’ve done snow scenes in Canada or gray France, Florida light shines through."
- Hollis Jeffcoat
By the early 1990's Hollis was ready to return home after decades abroad and home to her was New York City. She found an apartment in the West Village and made the living room her studio. A subsequent move to Brooklyn with a studio in DUMBO gave her the space to create large landscapes again and an artist residency in Georgia the nature to inspire her. But it was an incident of finding a dead hawk that set her next trajectory in motion.
The astonishing aspect was that a group of hawks were continuously circling above their fallen brethren. Dead creatures broke Hollis heart open and this incident coupled with the amazing hawk circle compelled her produced the Bourne series. "With this I returned to Nature." Back in Florida a similar incident of a dying duck lead to the Traveler Series, 2002-2016 (35+ in total), which began in Naples and continued through her return to Brooklyn.
"My emotional response to the killed duck had to be gotten out. What compelled me to go further and further on the Traveler Series is that each had its own character, its own being. I had gotten closer to the spirit of the duck/hawk when I painted it. Then more started coming - not ducks but spirit birds, spirits flying.
I go through the experience of hearing the story of the "creature" and telling their story in paint. Judy Gardner's were flying above the Earth, giving a message to the world. As I painted it was talking to me."