Meet Sonoma County Artist Jill Keller Peters

I have been greatly honored by Satri  Pencak with her eloquent words and unique understanding for the artist. Please follow her blog to learn more about Sonoma County artists!

by Satri Pencak
Published: Apr. 8th, 2016
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Jill in her studio

When you look at a sunset, how many colors do you see, how many shades of pink or blue? What color is the rain, or the feeling of gladness? Artist Jill Keller Peters addresses these questions by using color as an expressive language. Her current oil paintings are color abstractions that could be more closely described as color-field painting. Jill calls them color explorations; color being her most important and most powerful communication tool. She says “I express and develop a language with my work through color.” 

Prior to delving more fully into abstraction, Jill had a long career as a painter of impressionistic landscapes, and in many ways her abstraction series is a natural extension. The colors and landscape elements have been distilled into blocks of precisely chosen colors that are carefully arranged in relationship to each other.
This transition in Jill’s style reflects the influence of paintings she has seen and been deeply moved by. Her recent work combines the Bauhaus design elements of artists such as Josef Albers and Paul Klee, with the colors and mood of Claude Monet’s gardens and ponds. Jill says “I am inspired by the colors of nature, and by emotions, thoughts, and feelings.”

Through her paintings Jill’s intention is to express intense feelings such as love and joy; or the feeling of the air, color, and sound of walking on the beach on a particular day. The paintings also create a visual environment that can be felt and experienced, invoking feelings of vibrancy or tranquility in the viewer.

Jill has lived in Sonoma County since 1978, and she appreciates the exquisite wide-open spaces of the countryside. She says that “The moving lines of the hills, the fragrance of the orchards and vineyards, and the history of hardworking farmers and ranchers influence a love of organic beauty in my work.”

Her current exhibition, Choreography of Color, an exploration of the rhythms and movements of color created to express states of wellbeing and wonder, is on view through April 30 at The Passdoor, in Sebastopol, 6780 McKinley St., #150, the Barlow, 707-634-0015.

A showing of Jill’s landscape paintings will be on view May 19 through July 19 at the Dutton Goldfield Tasting Room, in Graton, 3100 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, 707-823-3887.
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You can see more of Jill’s artwork on her website, http://www.jillkellerpeters.com