Our Outdoor Living special section cover is graced with the watercolor art of local artist Jan Guarino. Passionate about watercolors, one look at her paintings tells viewers that they are looking at the work of a fine artist who is capable of capturing the essence and beauty of many diverse subjects.
“Every painting I choose to paint focuses on the question: what drew me to this subject? As I move through this question, I then look at my world through a filter that says to me, what’s next and then go where the answers may lead me,” said Guarino. “It may be a place I visited during my travels. I will be called to a particular photo, or a painting I started en plein aire. It may be a photograph someone shows me of a person, a child, a couple that captured a moment, an expression, a posture. It is in that moment that I pause and realize I am overcome by a stirring, an ache—and I must paint it.”
Guarino’s work can be seen in Creations Magazine on each issue’s Poetry Page and sometimes on the cover. Works have also been chosen by businesses to hang in offices and hallways, by homeowners to hang on the walls of their homes, commissioned by organizations to fuel their fundraising efforts and to adorn their journals and marketing materials. Simply, her work is diverse and is set apart from the rest.
The artist’s creative talent has fueled the success of her own graphics design firm, Guarino Graphics & Fine Arts for more than 40 years, www.guarino.graphics. Known as the “Logo Goddess,” Guarino has won numerous local, regional and national awards for her creative development of corporate identity programs and communication materials for sales and marketing. In addition, she has created her own line of holiday cards that are earth friendly, blending original art with famous quotes.
