DVAA Member since 2023
Jill Haas
WEBSITE: jillhaasstudio.com
About:
Jill Haas grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where her mother and grandmother painted watercolor botanicals that filled the walls of her childhood home; her grandfather, a botanist by hobby, created new varieties of lilies; and her father taught her how to sail. The bold floral palette and nautical lines and knots from her memories are metaphorically woven into her painted, collaged abstractions on canvas and panel. In addition to her painting practice, she is an award-winning animator and illustrator, depicting pediatric content for a children’s health system. Haas has exhibited at: Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; The Art Trust, West Chester, PA; Gallery on Park, Swarthmore, PA; Meridian Bank, West Chester, PA; Greenville Country Club, Greenville, DE; David Lyall Interior Design Gallery, Lancaster PA, and several others. She has work in private collections throughout Pennsylvania as well as New York, Rhode Island, and California. She received Best of Show-Media Arts Council in 2019; Second Place-Chester County Art Association Plein Air Event, 2017; and Honorable Mention-Center for Creative Arts Regional Juried Show, 2017. Haas graduated from the University of Delaware and studied painting privately.
Artist Statement:
I paint with paper: covering swatches with loose brushstrokes and placing them in compositions. These paper shapes are harmoniously interwoven along axis lines. These lines play an important role in my life and art because they represent my priorities and provide a framework for making decisions. In the studio, the axis lines are the foundation of my work.
When I create my work, I choose, combine, fit things in. Metaphorically, this reflects the constant balancing act I engage in as a woman who wears many hats: mother, partner, daughter, employee, artist, friend, to name a few. The results resemble weavings or stacked collections of bits and pieces, held together by my definition of a meaningful combination.
My compositions of organic and saturated color have their roots in my mother and grandmother’s botanical watercolor paintings. The shapes and patterns I use are influenced by memories and experiences, such as the nautical knots on our family sailboat, Amish clothes drying on the line, or the loom of a family friend.
I draw upon ideas that have resonated with me from childhood to today, and use them as guides while I combine layers of planned and unplanned marks. My work contains fragments of the past, embedded in a new context with the energy, influences, and priorities of my present.
