Wise Women - 02.24.23

Her work is fluid, graceful and organic, yet bold. A deep appreciation for our earth and all of its beauty becomes abstract acrylic works on her canvas.

Jana was born and raised in Arizona back in the day where the backyard playground was the desert and summers were spent in the pool from morning until dusk. She has a true passion for this desert in which she grew up. Her passion she attributes to her father. He would point out the unique beauty of the desert foliage, the subtle desert colors, the precious animals that run wild and the beautiful land in which it all grows.

Jana would begin painting at the age of three, learning how to mix colors and applying them to a blank canvas. “I would stand next to my father, with my own canvas and paintbrush in hand, watching carefully how he held his brush and applied the paint layer after layer as it seemed to exaggerate the object which he was painting.” This would be her first art lesson.

She attended art classes in the elementary school years taught by Earl Linderman, artist and teacher. “I clearly remember having to draw a still life of lemons in a bowl and thinking I need to draw them just as I see them but what if that wasn’t right?” It turns out that her abstract view was “right” as that is how she, the artist, interpreted those lemons.

“I love to create & dream. I grew up in a creative family with my father as an artist and home designer, my mother an interior designer and wonderfully talented & artistic siblings.  With much gratitude to my parents,  my creative education began in my early years simply being surrounded by beauty in architecture & design.  As I became a parent myself, I loved sharing the creative world with my daughters. In 2007, I was ready to  share my own work and venture out as an artist.”

Jana’s desire to paint comes from a place of strength and peace. “I want people to feel a sense of serenity and beauty when they view my work. Movement is also very important to me. The reality that objects in nature are constantly moving and growing in a slow and subtle way has always intrigued me. I remember the desert as a little girl right before a rainstorm. Everything was still, peaceful, vibrant and the smell of creosote, intoxicating. Yet, even within the stillness there was a sense that everything in this vast desert was growing subtly in harmony just how God had intended.”

Jana creates on canvas using acrylic paint layering for richness and depth. Her art continues to evolve and she likes where her art takes her. “I get lost in my paintings way beyond the canvas.” She is inspired by artistic works of her father, the late William F. Tull, Georgia O’Keeffe, Joni Mitchell, Steve Perry, Milton Avery and her grandmother Elizabeth “Betty” Niemann. And, forever inspired by the love of her two beautiful daughters, Annie and Sarah!

Jana resides and creates in Scottsdale, AZ where the art scene is vibrant!  ”I have been blessed with a beautiful gift to enjoy and I want to honor that gift every time I pick up a paint brush and create.”