Jan Dilenschneider (Fine Arts Education, 1965) will be travelling to Paris this summer to launch the opening of an exhibition of her oil paintings at Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier, in Paris’ historic Le Marais district, beginning July 9. The exposition will include 28 paintings, and fill the first two floors of the gallery. Dilenschneider’s works include landscapes and still-life pieces.

“I am creating many of the paintings especially for this show,” said Dilenschneider, a resident of Darien, Connecticut.

Coming from an artistic family, her mother also was a painter, Dilenschneider created her first oil painting at 12 years old. She continued to pursue arts when she graduated from Ohio State with a Bachelor of Science degree in Fine Arts Education. She then studied arts at the North Shore Art League in Illinois and the National Academy of Design in New York City. Dilenschneider was honored for her work, including "Best in Show" at the 20th Annual School of Art Student Exhibition, a juried show sponsored by the Silvermine Guild Art Center in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Of her technique for the upcoming exhibition, Dilenschneider explained that the paintings are distinguished by “broad, energetic strokes and complementary colors,” and inspired by keeping her mind open to a unique milieu. She finds inspiration everywhere around her.

“When you live on Long Island Sound, you’re constantly seeing big expanses of green grass and blue water,” she said. “Many times I’m inspired by what is happening – storm clouds, or Hurricane Sandy.”

Perceiving and processing your environment, and interpreting it for the viewer, is a vital part of the artistic process, said Dilenschneider.

“If you were a musician, you’d hear a note that was beautiful, or you’d hear a note that was wrong. It is the same with perceiving art, how you experience it. Grass, for example, is green, but it is many colors – yellow-green in the sunlight, blue-green in the shade.”

Dilenschneider’s passion for art extends well beyond her own work. In 2004, she established the Jan Dilenschneider Lecture Fund to support two visiting artist lectures in Ohio State’s Department of Art. In addition, Robert Dilenschneider, her husband, has honored Jan’s work through contributions in her name to the university’s Department of Art.

“I believe that the arts are very important because they give us the love of life, they give us our solace, they bring a little extra humanity to life."

For more information about the exhibition and images of Jan Dilenschneider’s paintings, please contact Mary Frances Duffy, Jim Zebora, or Allison Henze at The Dilenschneider Group, (212) 922-0900.