JEAN PILCH

JEAN PILCH

“If I didn’t live in Alberta I might not be a landscape painter,” says Jean Pilch. A Calgary resident for 30 years, Pilch grew up on a farm in Northern Alberta and began painting when she was nine years old. She works in acrylics and pastel pencil, which allow her to compose very technical work. But don’t call it photo realism. Although Pilch works in her studio from photos she takes on her various hikes throughout Kananaskis Country and other mountainous regions, she does not make exact replicas of her photos. Pilch prefers to refer to her work as “edited realism,” often using two or three photos together to compose one piece. Pilch is a Premier Pastellist with the Pastel Society of Canada, and has been a member of the Alberta Society of Artists since 1998. Jean Pilch’s exhibition High Trails and Back Roads runs September 21 to mid-October, 2002 at Kensington Fine Art Gallery.