Jan Yates, SCA

ABOUT

 

Jan Yates, SCA, spent her childhood in the agricultural region of Niagara, Ontario, Canada. As an artist and young adult she lived and practiced in the city of Toronto but did not pursue art professionally until she moved to Southern California in her late twenties. Yates studied independently and worked under master artists Urania Christy Tarbet, Michael Jaques, Steven Doherty and Manuael de Leon.

Since moving back to Canada in 1995, Jan Yates has been elected as a member of the Society of Canadian Artists and Landscape Artists International. Her work is held in  collections throughout North America, Southern Ireland, France, England and Australia and she has been awarded numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Yates was also awarded a residency from the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland and has garnered recognition and awards from selected juried exhibitions in Canada and the United States.
      
For the past decade Jan Yates has been compelled to create work directly from the land. Inspired by Canada's Emily Carr, Yates paints almost entirely plein air, enabling her to engage in an intimate dialogue with our natural and agricultural world. She examines the correlation between her own practice and the cycle of harvest- each having faith in what the land will give. Protection and the importance of maintaining ecological integrity concerning protected land also informs her work.

Jan Yates has been an influential figure in the Niagara art scene, contributing her time and ideas to many community endeavours. Currently the artist is documenting the impact of Greenbelt legislation on agricultural land in Southern Ontario. Yates is also expanding her agri-cultural investigations to include rural communities outside of Canada. Past ventures encompass the Niagara Wine Region Painters' Alliance travelling exhibition series and mentoring at-risk youth for community mural projects. She continues to teach painting and her work is represented by the Jordan Art Gallery, of which she is a partner.
 

 

 To visit Jan Yates' blog, click here