Featured on cover: Belen artist gets to the point
 

Belen, NM – Janet Bray's warm smile and enthusiasm spill through a gathering of people just like they flow across her canvasses, warming people's heart and cheering walls.

Even reconstructive surgery on both wrists didn't put a damper on her bubbly and only slowed her painting for a short while.

“I have to have my hands," Janet said at the recent reception for the Belen Art League's annual Fall Show. Her second wrist was bandaged still but she had already started painting again. Her "Evening Shade" had brought her Best of Show, the third such award in three years.

She is pleased to have the surgery behind her. "I have limited use now but if I hadn't gotten it done, it would be a limited time to use them," she says.

Janet moved to the Belen area four years ago. A student of Dorothea Van Eckhardt, Janet says "I can't say enough about her. She's wonderful!"

Janet has begun working with egg tempura, a medium she says she is liking more and more. Previously her pointillistic pictures were done solely in gauche.

Janet has studied under Yogi Baba Hari Dass in 1973 and has worked as a music therapist and taught music and yoga. "I don't teach yoga anymore,” she says, but she still practices and considers herself a student. She is still active in music, singing in hospitals and for special occasions for seniors and “for fun.”

But her passion for painting seems to just be starting. "When I get a paint brush in my hand, it just takes over. Like it paints for me. It's that creative energy, spiritual energy. I paint under my spiritual name Purnima because I believe that's where this art comes from."

Janet’s paintings may be seen at the Belen Art League Gallery, 509 Becker Ave. and at the New Mexico Store, in Old Town, Albuquerque. She will hang a one-woman show at the Rio Communities bank in December. For more information, call Janet, 505-864-4157.

 

By pengwen

I'm not sure that our printed version of Janet's picture does the painting justice. We're very particular about our covers, as some of you might already know. But the process of getting an original piece of artwork – sometimes measuring feet rather than inches – ready to reproduce on even glorified newsprint is sometimes not straight forward much less simple.

Boy, could I tell you stories about front pages! But the point of this story is that Janet is not into computers and electronics. She sent me a very nice print of her work which I scanned on my new scanner (yeah!) Under deadline pressure, I think I didn't double check the colors with the result that some of the darker colors printed too dark.

However, our online version of this is much better. And, while the basic tenet of reproduction is the fewer copies/changes the better, in this case, it wasn't so.

After I finish layout of the issue, normal procedure is to process the entire file over to webmaster /whipping boy Greg Platt who finalizes the copy for the web. I never actually sent him the cover file and so he ended up taking the printed front page, copying it on his scanner and recreating for our web cover.
Came out better, don't you think?