Light affects our perception of color in all painting, but in Janet Siegel Rogers' luminous, glowing paintings the light is active from within the paint layers, energizing her glorious colors with an ever-changing liveliness. Janet searched and experimented to find the perfect medium for her exploration of pure color, discovering that beeswax mixed in oil paint suspends the layers of pigments and allows light into the surface of the painting. This process also holds the impression of her brushstroke and allows her to weave over the surface of her layered colors a rhythm movement and a tapestry of texture.
As Anastasia McBride, the art critic for Washington & World Arts explains, "Light bouncing from one layer of oil encaustic to another creates an infinite array of hues and tones… the artist's vigorous brushwork also causes the light to refract and the surface to move… it is the light emanating from within which makes this work profound."
Rogers life experience has naturally influenced her work, and it is interesting to reflect on the impact her six years in the Far East have had on her aesthetic sensibilities. She continues to travel and teach and has recently spent time in Turkey, Egypt, Israel and China as part of the Citizens Ambassador Program. Janet holds three degrees, including one from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and comments, "We can't stop learning" - which is evident from her deeply held philosophies about painting, color theory and art. Janet lives by the beach where she can observe the beautiful effects of light on water, and the visually powerful meeting of sky and water in the line of the horizon. The artist notes, "the Everglades, the skies and the waters all influence my work."
Her painting is simple and yet intellectually and visually complex, her technique original in its application and ancient in its origins. Such paradoxes form the foundation of art in our times, making Janet as accurate in her reflection of our philosophical climate as she is a reflection of the shimmering colors of our natural world.