Figure /Ground

The work involves puzzles and landscape; figures in landscape, and landscape in figures. Space becomes figure, and figure becomes space.

With each stroke, it’s either a step in the right direction, or a mistake. I stay present in my body and use my felt sense, because it’s easy to give up or push a painting too far. My work is about new forms created in negative space by brushstrokes surrounding dominant figures. Figure ground relationship becomes blurred, as ground takes on its own significance.

Gesture and dynamic juxtaposition are important. As in meditation, it’s possible to see forms and thoughts mixing into each other. The puzzle is putting them together in a new way, and wondering what they mean.

Jean Plough is a painter in Philadelphia. She belongs to Muse Gallery and also
shows at Off the Wall Gallery. Jean had solo shows at Pleiades Gallery, Foundry
Gallery, Pfenninger Gallery, Hoyt Institute of Art, Neumann University, Settlement Music School, and Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

She received awards from Anita Shapolsky Foundation, Main Line Art Center, Off the
Wall Gallery, and University of Delaware Biennial.
Jean has had work in many juried shows including New York Law School, Art in City
Hall, National Weather Biennial, SPACE Gallery, Rossler Gallery, Shippensburg
University and Bridgette Mayer Gallery. She has paintings in collections of Capital One,Sage Scholars, and Annapolis Volvo. In 2003 Jean’s work was included in InsomniaLandscapes of the Night, at National Museum of Women in the Arts.