Inner landscapes

Artist explores the light that shines behind the dark

Janine Kinch calls her paintings “inner landscapes”, and she uses colour and light to hint at a reality that lies beyond the visible realm. While she has been drawing and painting since childhood, she did not receive any formal training until she went to the Ontario College of Art and Design when she was in her forties. “I always wanted to be an artist. I think I had an experience when I was very young that determined this path for me, but I raised children and was at home most of the time, then I decided that it was my time,” she says. “I did it slowly as a mature student, so I could really enjoy and fully appreciate the process.” As her art practice grew, Janine began to do some self-inquiry and became more aware of the power of images to speak beyond the rational mind. “Images would appear on paper as if my pen knew what to do, and so my paintings changed radically as a result, and I wanted to pursue that because I was interested in inspiring others to see art as a spiritual path to go a little deeper into themselves,” she says. She began teaching art, beginning with still life then moving on to models and then landscapes, which she says was part of her growth process. She then studied at The Create Institute, a school based on the creative process in all forms, including music, poetry and visual art. She was not interested in the psychotherapy aspects of art, but instead the use of art as a spiritually creative process. This really appealed to her and is integral to her approach. “I am interested in finding meaning in art, rather than producing art, so it became more of an interior process and in fact I call my paintings ‘Inner Landscapes’ because they are much more than what I experience in the moment. I was trusting once I get the process started, sometimes through chaos and colours, then things would appear, and an image would come to me and I would just follow it.”

Artist Janine Kinch with one of her paintings now on display at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Picton.

Inspiration for her paintings comes mostly from the feelings evoked by observing the natural world, but she also finds joy in the medium that she uses. She has worked in watercolour, acrylic, oil and collage. “I love to experiment. The medium also leads as well, and I get more energy out of something new to discover through the medium.” Recently she has been painting on Plexiglas and then using a press to transfer the image to paper. Over the years she has continued to give art workshops as well as expressive art therapy sessions, where the aim is to set free the creative process. “The healing happens in the relationships between the teacher and the student and the canvas. The role of the artist is to make people see,” she says.

After 17 years in the County, Janine is preparing to move back to the city to be closer to her family. She will be moving to a much smaller space, and she has decided to sell as much of her artworks as possible. She had planned for a show and sale at her County studio this month, but Covid restrictions mean that is no longer possible. Instead, her work is now on display at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Picton, where she was Artist in Residence and where her work was featured in a display accompanied by original music from pianist Tom Dietzel in 2017. The artworks will be available at a substantial discount, and part of the proceeds will be donated to the church. A date has not yet been finalized, but an announcement will be made on social media and in this paper. For more information, please email standrewspicton@gmail.com