strictly on canvas until last ….

strictly on canvas until last year, when COVID-19 affected that as it did almost everything else.

“I ran out of canvas last year because of COVID,” she said. “I went over by my husband’s bench. He had a couple of nice pieces of wood.”

Janis found that oil paints took well to the surface, and the plank shape of the boards gave her a different dimension on which to create.

“What’s nice about it is you can still see the wood grain through it,” she said.

Staying true to nature is a defining feature of Janis’ work. She much prefers landscapes to portraits and often gets her inspiration from scenic photographs. What eventually fills her empty canvas depends on the state of mind she’s in when she begins a piece.

“It’s definitely a mood,” she said. “It definitely has to be that I’m feeling a calm scene, or a waterfall.”

Janis likes the versatility of working with oil pants. With them, she’s found she does not have to make time to finish a piece all at once, but can return and refresh it.

“I love working with oils. It’s very forgiving,” she said. “I like the fact that I can change a painting very easily as I go. I’ve gotten used to the fact that I don’t need to finish a painting. I’m learning how to apply more layers to that painting that was already drying.”

Another aspect of her work that she now enjoys is collaborating with her brother in Greenwood for framing. Janis understands how important a frame is to a work of art, and sometimes the wrong frame can even detract from what’s on the canvas. She was thinking of leaving her works unframed to allow the buyer to select their own, but then talked with the Pitts about options.

She took a few of her paintings to Greenwood, and Paul and Jane added eclectic metal frames with welded features to create truly unique looks.

“I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, you guys, this is beautiful,’” Janis said. “They have more of the rough and raw feel and was a really nice complement to the nature painting. It really added personality.”

Another feature that Janis believes shows through her work is her appreciation for calmness, for finding serenity even in chaotic times. The motto printed on her business card -- “Breathe in and breathe out” -- carried her through almost four decades of caring for her patients, and she tries to make her affinity for peace show through in her painting.

“That is my philosophy,” she said. “I think that’s why I was an effective nurse.”

Janis is glad she accidentally found her artistic calling through that course some 30 years ago, and that she now has more time to transfer what’s in her mind onto canvas, or wood. The fact that someone else would want to buy them, well, that still surprises her. She recalls one particular piece she did a while back that she disliked, but a woman saw it, loved it and bought it.

Janis struggles with pricing her work, and has been told repeatedly that she could charge more. That’s not her mission, though, to make scads of money from something she enjoys.

“I just want people to enjoy the piece,” she said.

And when they do, Janis said, she sometimes finds it difficult to watch them walk away.

“It’s so hard,” she said of the sales. “It’s like giving away your children. You’re never going to see them again. You spent so much time on them and now it’s gone.”

To view more of Janis’ work, see Art by Jan on Facebook.