Jean's traditional practice includes referential imagery of people, still life, landscape, and abstraction. The layering of a variety of media offers Jean an assortment of possibilities within her work; quality of edge, line and texture all play a role within her imagery. Although Pederson is well known for her mastery of watercolors, mixed media has become an important venue for her creative expression.
The portraits in her paintings are based on people who she has met or impacted her. These subjects in her paintings often reflect different walks of life as well as diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. We are hard pressed to find a period in time when the human figure wasn't represented. Finding a way to express the human figure in a language that reflects the twenty-first century is perhaps the greatest challenge in figurative work today.
Jean is the author of Expressive Portraits: Creative Methods for Painting People and Mixed Media Painting Workshop. She has served as a contributing editor for The Artistâs Magazine, appeared in several of the Splash best-of-watercolor series, Watercolor Artist, MagazinâArt and has many instructional DVDs.
Included in Canadaâs Whoâs Who, Jean is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society (AWS), Transparent Watercolor Society of America (TWSA), National Watercolor Society (NWS) California Watercolor Association (MCWA), The Federation of Canadian Artists (SFCA), the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor (CSPWC) and the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA).
Jean has been honored with numerous national and international awards over the years, and has work placed in the Royal Collection in Windsor, England. She was the first recipient of the Federation of Canadian Artists Early Achievement Award, recognizing her many honors and awards for consistently exceptional painting, and for her international writing to promote art education. Jean was awarded the Queenâs Diamond Jubilee Medal for contribution to the arts. Jean was awarded several awards including Best in Show with the ISEA international exhibition.
Jean Pederson has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally in museums and galleries in Africa, Jiangsu China, Italy, England, Sweden, New York, United Nations, San Francisco, Mexico and Canada.
A popular instructor throughout North America, she has led workshops at colleges, professional organizations, symposiums and has juried national and international exhibitions.
