Jeanine Potter finds each of her artistic mediums supportive building blocks in her work. She describes her painting as “moment creating.” and her photography as “moment hunting.”
To her, art has the powerful ability to enrich and complete one’s daily existence. It can lighten the heart, energize the spirit, inspire the mind, comfort the soul, and give pause.
That is the philosophical catalyst for her featured artist exhibit “Landscapes from Within …” from October 3-30 at The Society of Bluffton Artists gallery in Old Town Bluffton. A special reception — with an opportunity to meet the artist — will take place from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7 at the gallery. These events are open to the public.
“Opportunities to discover and nurture creativity are there for anyone,” Potter said. “I invite everyone to choose to look and give themselves permission to try.”
Potter uses a combination of life experience, diverse skills, disciplines, and intuition to create her art. She describes the process as letting the process unfold “through exploration, experimentation, and just doing it.” The freedom, immediacy, and flexibility of acrylics give her the ability to build layers and depth; while creating intricate textures with occasional additions of pencil, ink, pastel, crayon, collage, and other media.
Potter’s work includes purely abstract pieces that “are celebrations of spontaneity, color, and humor.” Her landscapes are abstractions of her photographs with a twist.
“I invite viewers to journey through ‘Landscapes from Within’ to rest, revive, and discover their own path, to just be,” Potter says.
At 9 years old, Potter fell in love with two landscapes by French artist Andre Villebeuf in her grandmother’s Paris apartment, touching her soul and propelling her forward on her artistic journey. Her life experiences — born in Massachusetts, dual French citizenship, varied career paths, and world traveling — all have influenced her art.
Potter’s artworks have been exhibited regionally at the Art League of Hilton Head 2021 Biennale Exhibition, the Art League of Hilton Head Gallery, and SOBA, from where happily, several of her works found forever homes.
For many years her design firm, Jeanine Potter Designs, created jewelry incorporating semi-precious stones and pearls which has been collected nationwide and abroad. Her interior design projects ranged from corporate, healthcare, retail, and the private sector including several Parisian apartment renovations; “The 7 World’s of SONESTA” Sonesta Hotels Corporate exhibit design, Key Biscayne, Fla.; the Junior League Showhouse, Wellesley MA: “Café Neptune”- design and execution and the Bridgewater Public Library: “Are you an Artist? What if you are?” exhibit design.
Potter holds a BFA in graphic design and photography from Massachusetts College of Art. She studied space planning and interior design at the Boston Architectural Center earning a National Council of Interior Design Qualification Certification. Potter also holds a Master of Education from Bridgewater State College,
She is past president of the Eva Brownman Fund at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Massachusetts. Money raised funded breast cancer research and international visiting professor lectures for Institute researchers.
She is an exhibiting member at the SOBA Gallery and The Art League Hilton Head.
Potter attributes her eclectic life experiences, varied career skills, and disciplines for creating a fertile topography for her ‘Landscapes from Within…”
