Jeanne Hyland ’71 is an award-winning artist whose still lifes, nudes, and portraits are currently on display at City of Brea Art Gallery and EXPO New Mexico in Albuquerque. She received a BFA (magna cum laude) in figure sculpture and watercolor from the University of New Hampshire and studied at École des Beaux Arts, St. Etienne, France. As someone who has enjoyed making and creating since grade school, Ms. Hyland says she has a constantly evolving style that is heavily influenced by her teaching. And to all those budding artists out there, Ms. Hyland notes that watercolor paintings are not as hard as they seem.

“Watercolor is SUCH a flexible painting medium,” she notes. “I’ve developed a way to keep the watercolor “workable” for hours, and you can also then rehydrate the paint later on to make changes.”

1. You have been teaching art workshops all over the world. Can you tell us how you first got interested in art and how did your career in art begin? How much does your teaching influence your own art?

It seems that I just naturally was good at it right from the start. I was very good at all the hand manipulation “intelligence” tests in early nursery school! And I enjoyed fiddling with paints, pencils, arranging flowers…very quiet and self-directed activities. And I had a fabulous art teacher in grade school and beyond. I can see now that she had great projects and entered us in Scholastic Art Awards. I got lots of attention early on for being good at it—that certainly encouraged me to continue and I enjoy making things. I got terrible marks in handwriting in grade school… guess my cursive was a little too wild. I still like to “make stuff.”

My teaching is definitely an influence on my art and vice versa. I evolve what I teach based on issues that I am working on in my own work and pick subjects that I am interested in. My personal experience in making art, my process, my failures and successes, inform what I end up teaching and offer students. I’m also a bit of a “techie” and early adopter, so I like to keep up with new materials and art supplies. I even sometimes test products for small manufacturers and create some of my own solutions for equipment.

2. What is your favorite art medium and why?

It’s certainly watercolor for the last number of years. Painting has become my passion after having “left” sculpture, which was my original passion (see my sculpture, “Title IX,” at the Williston Northampton Athletic building). Watercolor is SUCH a flexible painting medium, which is one of the things I try to communicate in my workshops and demonstrations in an effort to debunk many of the myths about it being fragile, difficult, and having only one shot at it. I’ve developed a way to keep the watercolor “workable” for hours, and you can also then rehydrate the paint later on to make changes. With modern pigments, the paintings are light fast, colors are bright, and there are many new materials to paint on a new ways to frame (without Plexiglas) that are coming online and becoming popular. It is a medium that also lends itself to being combined with other media—very exciting.

3. Is this how you thought your life would unfold upon graduation from college?

No. I had NO idea how I would make a living related to art. Even though I was passionate about art and received a BFA, in those days we weren’t taught about options for making a living. There was nothing about teaching (maybe an implied professorship if you went on to an MFA) or galleries, and commercial art was considered “prostitution.” And, since it was the 70s, I didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of my parents and become a university professor. I went (I thought) screaming in the other direction from what my parents had done and ended up in the business world in graphic design. But when I graduated, I packed up the VW and headed west, becoming a ski instructor for several years while finding my way. I eventually realized, through teaching skiing, that I had inherited the teaching genes, and I eventually came full circle and started teaching watercolor painting after I got out of graphic design (another long story).

4. Tell us more about your recent awards.

It’s been an award-ful year this year. It seems to come in bunches.

I was awarded best of show in New Mexico Watercolor Society’s Spring 2014 Exhibition in Albuquerque, NM. My portrait Waiting for the Stage is a watercolor on paper of a woman in period western dress, anxiously looking into the distance for signs of the stagecoach she is waiting for. May 10-June 1, 2014.

I won first place–2D at the Women Artist of the West 44th National Exhibition; WAOWed in San Diego at the at the Women’s Museum of California. My painting 4th of July Roses is a watercolor on paper mounted to a cradled hardboard panel, sealed with archival acrylic varnish and with no plexi/mat. May 2-June 30, 2014.

I was an invited guest of honor in the 2014 Belgian exhibition: Eau en Couleurs; International Watercolour Biennial—”Celebration of Light.” August 15–September 7, 2014 in Estaimbourg, Belgium. My painting, Glass & Mug, was display in the show and their published catalog.

My painting, Eldorado Gold #1 received the Asel Art Supply Award in the Southwestern Watercolor Society’s 51st Membership Show, Dallas, TX at Eisemann Center, Richardson, TX. September 4-28, 2014.

I recently had my painting, Sunflower Blast #1, receive a Juror’s Award in the 46th Annual Watercolor West Juried Exhibition in Brea, CA. October 11-December 14, 2014.

Honorable Mention at the Fall 2104 Exhibition, New Mexico Watercolor Society was awarded to Jeanne for her Sunflower Blast #2. October 4-26, 2014. I profiled in the
Albuquerque Journal Arts “Venue” section, October 12, 2014.

5. How did you end up at Northampton School for Girls and what is your favorite memory of Northampton School for Girls?

Wow. That’s a story, too. I had just returned from a year in a French-speaking school in Bruxelles, Belgium. We lived there with my family while my father was on sabbatical leave to do research. I LOVED the school.

In returning to the States, we discovered that both my sister and I had already completed studies similar to the year ahead of us, and local schools didn’t have much of a French program, etc. So somehow, my parents got me a scholarship to NSFG as a boarding student. I had to do a little work in return— I (and operated the front reception switchboard some afternoons and evenings). Though I started in 10th grade, after the holidays I, and several other girls, were promoted to 11th grade. Strange but true. My sister came to NSFG the following senior year.

Lots of good memories: hanging out with friends on the back campus, eating Mississippi Mud, (should we admit to hitchhiking to the universities?), nights listening to music, talking with friends in the senior dorm, many hours senior year spent in the art building/sculpture studio, Senior Project…carving a three-inch wood sculpture (a classmate still has it), and working at the local gas station to learn how to rebuild a carburetor.

For me it was good times and special, changing times (first years to wear jeans to classes instead of skirts!)—the final year of NSFG before the merger. And I was ready to be away from home, having just lived abroad.