T J A S A O W E N: Mekong River

Monday, March 18, 2013

Mekong River

A very beautiful warm light filled this view of the Mekong River this morning...I was sitting watching the river boats pass through, each a different colour popping out against the lush green of the mountains. Suddenly a monk appeared to tend to his garden and I just watched this one spec of saffron and orange working it's way through the green. I was mesmerized. It was so peaceful. Calm. Quiet. There was a continuous rhythm on how he watered the rows of greens...it was beautiful.

The Work

Tjasa (pronounced Tee-asha) Owen’s work is inspired by her international travels, her love for coastal and inland landscapes and by her colourful sketchbooks and written correspondence. Having grown up by the Atlantic seashore, she is drawn to the ever changing skies and coastal scenes. While living and leading bike tours in France and other parts of Europe for three years, she was inspired by the endless rows of trees, distant hills and colour fields which she has incorporated into some of her landscapes. During her foreign travels and time away from the studio, she photographs, sketches and captures landscape details and textures to bring home to the studio.

Rather than representing a specific place, Tjasa is interested in creating views that feel shared and remembered, as though torn from the pages of a scrapbook. She sometimes writes postscripts and incomplete phrases from her journals or sketchbooks on the canvas, to imbue these new places with a sense of time and history. She likens her process to conjuring a landscape postcard in her head and reproducing it on canvas. By adding a thought in words on the bottom of the canvas and sometimes an ink stamp, she is sending it back into the world. By making paintings that feel like correspondence, Tjasa invites viewers to invent their own stories about the places she creates in her work.

Each piece, for me, is unique and carries its own story. My landscapes are inspired by my love for the Atlantic coastline as well as my travels abroad. I will incorporate my memories of different places, textures and colours I have seen into the individual pieces. Rather than documenting any actual place, I am more interested in reassembling the elements of scenes I remember - the way we do with snapshots and scrapbooks - to create views that feel shared and remembered. I sometimes add postscripts and incomplete phrases from my journals or sketchbooks to imbue these new places with a sense of time and history. I liken my process to conjuring a landscape postcard in my head, reproducing it on canvas, and, by adding an ink stamp, it’s as if I am sending it back into the world. By making paintings that feel like correspondence, I invite viewers to invent their own stories about the places I create in my work.

Back in her San Francisco studio she integrates the themes of rural and coastal landscape as well as correspondence to create her well-recognized larger format paintings. The artist employs acrylic, oil pastel as well as collage media in her canvases. Her subtle and whimsical notations on many of the pieces invite the viewer to create a personal relationship with the work of art open to their own interpretation.

Tjasa Owen has studied fine arts, art history, and interior architecture on both American coasts and abroad. She attended and received her BA at the University of Virginia and studied at the National Academy of Art in New York, the Academy of Art in San Francisco and Coupa in Paris. Her work has been shown extensively in the US and internationally and has been acquired by many corporate collections as well as by a distinguished list of private collectors.

Currently Tjasa lives between Mill Valley, CA and Cape Cod, MA with her two children, Finn & Remy, one rescue dog, and two rescue cats...

Exhibitions

2016 Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH

2015 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha's Vineyard, MA

2015 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2015 Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY

2014 Chase Edwards Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY

2014 Nantucket Looms, Nantucket, MA

2014 Coastal, Nantucket, MA

2014 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha's Vineyard, MA

2013 Hang Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2013 DiPadova Gallery at St. Helena Winery, St. Helena, CA

2013 San Francisco Showcase House, San Francisco, CA

2012 Hang Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2012 San Francisco Fine Art Fair, San Francisco, CA

2012 The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA

2012 Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY

2012 Dwell Magazine Home Tour, Marin, CA

2012 San Francisco Showcase House, San Francisco, CA

2012 DiPadova Gallery at Somerston Winery, Napa, CA

2011 The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA

2011 AAF Art Fair, New York, NY

2011 San Francisco Art Fair, CA

2010 Art Basel - Miami, Florida

2010 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2010 AAF Exhibition, New York, NY

2010 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2010 City Art Gallery, Greenville, NC

2009 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2009 Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY

2009 Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH

2008 City Art Gallery, Greenville, NC

2008 Parker Gallery, Sea Island, GA

2008 Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH

2008 AAF Exhibition, New York, NY

2008 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2008 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2007 Davenport, Too, Palm Beach, FL

2007 Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, CT

2007 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2007 Group Exhibit, Artscape Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA

2007 Cooper Hook Launch, New York, NY

2007 Gallery du Soleil, Tarrytown, NY

2007 City Art Gallery, Greenville, NC

2007 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2006 Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. MA

2006 AAF Exhibition, New York, NY

2006 Artscape Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA

2006 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2006 Hang Gallery AAF Fair New York, NY

2006 Coastal Living Magazine IDEA House, Newport, RI

2006 Eisenhauer Gallery, Block Island, RI

2006 Gallery du Soleil, Tarrytown, NY

2006 Heroes & Hearts , SF General Hospital, San Francisco

2006 Hang Gallery, San Francisco

2005 Boston International Fine Art Show

2005 ALP Galleries, New York, NY

2005 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2005 Five Main Gallery, Wickford, RI

2004 Les Yeux du Monde Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

2004 University of Virginia Bayly Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA

2004 Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, CT

2004 J Howell Fine Art Gallery, Healdsburg, CA

2004 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004 The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA

2004 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2004 Eisenhauer Gallery, Block Island, RI

2004 City Art Gallery Greenville, NC

2003 Lucas Gallery, Telluride, CO

2003 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2003 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2003 Eisenhauer Gallery, Block Island, RI

2002 Robert Lehman Art Center, N.Andover, MA

2002 Sunset Magazine IDEA House

2002 Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA

2002 Arcadia, Old Greenwich, CT

2002 FreshstArt, Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA

2001 Flinn Gallery Greenwich, CT

2001 Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

2001 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2000 Summit Show, Framingham, Mass

2000 Eisenhauer Gallery, Block Island, RI

2000 City Art Gallery, North Carolina

1999 Gail Gates Gallery, New York

1999 Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1999 Sixth @ Prince Gallery, New York, NY

1999 Women Beyond Borders, Worldwide traveling exhibition

1998 Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY

1998 Duo Duo Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

1998 German American Chamber of Commerce, New York, NY

1998 National Academy of Art, New York, NY

Collections

The Collection of the San Francisco Federal Building

The Collection of the Sacramento Federal Building

The Collection of Kay Saatchi, London

The Collection of Annaliese Soros, New York

Dana Farber Institute, Boston

The Collection of Andy & Eva Grove, California

The Fisher Collection, California

The Collection of Tony Goldwyn, Connecticut

The Collection of Anna Quindlen, New York

Pebble Beach Company, Carmel

Sonoma Mission Inn, California

Station Casinos, Las Vegas

Union Bank, Los Angeles
Schroder Ventures, Boston

The Collection of UNICEF

The Citywalk Collection, Oakland, California

The Marriot Hotel Group

The Crown Plaza Hotel Group

Inn on Rudolph, Napa, CA

Bank of the West, San Francisco, CA

Publications

2016 "Quantico", ABC television series...

2016 Cape Cod Life Magazine, The Arts Issue, June 2016

2016 Brooks Bulletin, "Exploring an Inspiration", May

2015 Marin Magazine, "Pen Brush & Lens", May 2015

2015 New York Spaces, "The Canfin Gallery presents "A sense of Place", May 2015

2012 The Hudson Independent, "The Canfin Gallery to show Tjasa Owen as Final Show of the New Season", May 2012 by Morey Storck

2011 San Francisco Chronicle, "Let the Sunshine In", Living Section, July 2011

2011 Houzz Home Design, "Sunny Update for California Bungalow", July 2011

2011 At Home Magazine, "Best of Design Issue", July- August 2011

2010 Décor Magazine, “Most Elegant Rooms Ever”, Summer 2010 Issue

2010 Martha’s Vineyard Times, “Eisenhauer Gallery Celebrates 10 Years”, May 2010 by Jack Shea

2009 Portsmouth Herald, “Homes Highlighted”, by Dave Choate, December 2009

2009 Hudson Valley Business Journal, “On the Horizon”. April 2009

2009 Southern New England Home Magazine, 2009-2010 Issue

2008 ABC Television Production “View from the Bay”, October 2008

2008 Art, ltd Magazine, July/ August issue, 2008

2008 Art Forum, Art Guide, July Issue, 2008

2008 Décor Magazine, “Jim Hawes, Designer”, Fall/ Winter 2008 Issue

2008 At Home Magazine, “The Green House Effect”, May/June 08 Issue

2008 Southern New England Home Magazine, June Issue, 2008

2007 Better Homes & Gardens “Decorating” Magazine, Summer Edition, “Calm Waters” by Kim Waller

2007 Home & Garden, Westchester Magazine, Spring 2007 edition

2007 At Home Magazine, “Turning the Corner” Spring Anniversary edition, by Valerie Cruice

2007 Marin Magazine, “Fresh Starts” January 2007 Issue by Anne Crump Ray

2007 Planned Parenthood television commercial aired 2007

2007 TIVO television commercial aired 2007

2007 Temperapeutic Mattress commercial aired 2007

2007 ABC Television Production “Wife Swap”

2006 California Country Style, by Diane Dorrans Saeks, published November 2006

2006 Coastal Living Magazine “Idea House”, November Issue

2006 Block Island Times “Art Season Kicks Off at Block Island Galleries”, July 1, 2006 by Y. Kraykova

2006 Metropolitan Home Magazine July/ August Issue

2006 CBS News, “San Francisco General Hearts”, February 2, 2006

2006 San Francisco Business Times, “Heroes & Hearts”, February 3, 2006

2006 San Francisco Examiner, “Foundation Leaving New Hearts in San Francisco”, February 3, 2006

2006 San Francisco Chronicle, “Heroes & Hearts”, February 12, 2006

2006 San Francisco Sentinel, “Lovers Stroll for General Hospital”, February 13, 2006 by Pat Murphy

2006 San Francisco Chronicle, “Heroes & Hearts”, Sunday February 12, 2006

2006 Marin Extraordinary Living Magazine Cover March issue 2006

2005 Extreme Makeover Home Edition Television Show

2005 University of Virginia “Arts & Sciences” April 2005 by Sarah Heim

2005 Marin Extraordinary Living Magazine, Cover June/ July Issue 2005

2005 Coastal Living Magazine Nov/December 2005 by Susan Kim

2005 The Inquirer and Mirror Nantucket, “Eye”, June 23, 2005

2004 Vineyard Gazette, “Artist Exhibits Paintings…”, July 16, 2004

2004 Block Island Times, “Artist corresponds with the Island”, July 2004

2003 Home Magazine September 2003 by Brice Gaillard

2003 San Francisco Chronicle “Home & Garden” April 2003 by Jeannie Matteucci

2003 San Francisco Examiner, “Recent Landscapes…”, January 7, 2003

2003 Antiques and the Arts Weekly, “Tjasa Owen: Land & Sea”, August 8, 2003

2003 Block Island Times, “Tjasa Owen….”, August 30, 2003 by Christine Feeks

2002 Architectural Digest August 2002 by Patricia McColl

2002 Greenwich Time, “Art “, by Leila Jason

2002 San Francisco Examiner, “Eyes for Art”, July 30, 2002

2003 Custom Home September/ October 2002 by “M.D.”

2002 Greenwich Time, “Art” , June 6, 2002 by Pyke Johnson

2002 Greenwich Time, “Making Waves, and Hills”, June 7, 2002

2001 San Francisco Examiner, “Art Official”, February 27, 2001

2001 Fillmore Newspaper, “So fine…Art”, February, 2001 by Jennifer Siegal

2000 Home Magazine Cover Image, November 2000

2000 Greenwich Time, “Artist Combines Correspondance and Landscapes”, April 21, 2000

1999 Review, “Room with a View”, June 1999 by J, Bowyer Bell

1998 Where San Francisco, “Lessons in Art”, July 1998

T J A S A O W E N

Monday, March 18, 2013

Mekong River

Tjasa's San Francisco Studio

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Exhibitions

2006 AAF Exhibition, New York, NY

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Tjasa Owen Studio