Janet Howard-Fatta

Artist Statement


I was born and raised on Staten Island. I have seen the radical changes in the landscape there. I grew up on a street with six houses surrounded by woods and a stream. Now there are houses between those houses where I once built structures of mud and sticks. Through my art, I preserve these beautiful places in my memory, in my own backyard, in Warwick.
When I pass by the Miller barn, I look out at that field, pristine, untouched. The calm, steady quality of it draws me in. And then a sadness descends, knowing that change is inevitable.
My paintings allow me to experience those landscapes in all their natural glory.

To create the landscape series, I visit and paint on location in Warwick. Painting on location enables me to use all of my senses. I work quickly and intuitively. I try to feel the land and the ways in which I am connected to it. Time of day, birds taking flight, atmosphere, temperature, light, movement, the smell of a grassy field...all inform my painting. I fall in love with light every time I paint. Light is energy pure creative energy and I embrace it.

Painter Janet Howard-Fatta creates a variety of works, from representational landscapes in oil depicting place and time, to figurative works in wet and dry media. Still evolving, her work shows a process of transformation and change in an artist's work. Constantly working back and forth between drawing, painting, with watercolors, oils, and charcoal.

Selected Exhibitions
Emergence, Juried Invitational Show, Artery, Milford, PA, April, 2008
Open Studio Tour Warwick, NY 2007
Voices From the Woods, Warwick, NY, July 2006 : Philadelphia, PA, August 2006
Mannequin Projet, Warwick, NY, July 2006
5th Annual Hudson Valley Womens Show, Cornwall, NY March, 2006
Art Studio Tour, Port of Call Gallery,
4th Annual Hudson Valley Womens Show, Newburgh, NY March, 2005
Watercolors: Abrtract: Smithtown Art Assoc., Smithtown, NY, February 2005
Currier & Lazier Realtors, Warwick, NY, Dec 2004
Wet Paints Annual Art Show, Islip, NY, 1998

Bodies of Work
Landscape Painting Series, Oil Paintings, 2002-2006
Life Study - the Umber Series, Watercolour, 2003-2007
A series of quick Monochromatic watercolor Studies using burnt umber and pencil.Women, Gauche on paper, 200-2006 - A series of figures in and out of the garden.

Education
Long Island Art League, Ceramics, 1997- 2001
Suffolk Community College, Drawing, 1996
Brooklyn College, Drawing and Education classes, 1993 -1994
Pratt Institute, Bachelors Fine Arts, Painting 1987-1991
High School of Art & Design, Illustration, 1987

Affiliations
Warwick Art League 2006-2008
Warwick Life Drawing Group, 2002- Current
Stonybrook Figure Drawing & Painting Sessions 1996-1999

Teaching & Work Experience
Private art lessons- ages 6-15 , drawing & painting, April 06 -current
Coordinator, Woodlanders Gathering, Warwick, NY, 2005 & 2006
Northern Lights Academy of the Arts, Figure Drawing Instructor, 2004
Albert Wisner Library, Village College, Warwick Art League and Middletown Arts. Assoc., Figure Drawing Workshops, April 2006, Feb. 2005, Sept. 2004, April 2003
Graphic Design, J. DÕAddario & Company, Farmingdale, NY1996-2002
Graphic Design, Lifetime Brands, Westbury, NY 1991-1996

Personal
Janet now works & plays in Warwick, NY with her husband sculptor/art teacher Louis Fatta with their two children & one very big black labrador retriever.