In her paintings and drawings, Lear explores themes of proportion and space and has found trees to be an ideal means for this dialogue. "She focuses on their root and trunk systems, balancing the chunky, powerful bases with the light, graceful lines throughout the landscape. Similarly, she incorporates both painterly brushwork and architectural linearity, ultimately finding an equilibrium between the two. Through exploring the roots and the roles they play in the landscape, Lear celebrates the groundedness and longevity of the trees, displaying with awe the sense of permanence that they instill." [curator / Wave Hill / Bronx NY]

Lear's work was on view earlier this year at Wave Hill Gardens' Glyndor Gallery. The gardens celebrated the "2009 Year of the Trees" by inviting artists to create drawings and paintings based on -- or in response to -- trees in Wave Hill's collection. Jill Lear was one of twelve artists whose work honored the majestic trees that anchor the 28 acre public gardens in the Bronx. Drawing on the traditions of tree portraiture, curators invited artists to create paintings and drawings inspired by Wave Hill's arboreal treasures, some more than a century old. The artists toured the grounds with the horticulture staff and made multiple visits to observe, sketch and photograph as they delved into the characteristics of various species. The exhibition, Arbores Venerabiles, showcased the artists' varied interpretive responses to the garden's extraordinary collection of trees.

Also on view for COORDINATES will be a series of abstract watercolors and haiku books which suggest the artist's less literal response to her environment yet acknowledges the "joy of investigating and recording an endless possible set of structural and spatial relations within nature."

Lear's arbores work and essay will appear in Speak for the Trees, a book which will be released in December 2009. Robert Longo, Julie Heefernen, the Starns Brothers and April Gornik will also be featured in the book published by Marquand Books.

New York artist Jill Lear received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a major in French Medieval Literature. A decade later, she enrolled at the New York Studio School to study painting and drawing. Mornings were devoted to painting, afternoons to drawing with noontime art history lectures several days a week. The rigorous program taught her to look and think and to create a metaphor for the experience of seeing a subject.

In 2001, Lear completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT; she was accepted into the Viewing Program at the Drawing Center in New York City in 2006. Her work has been exhibited at the Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco and at the Wright State University Art Galleries in Dayton, OH, where she was awarded the Purchase Award in the exhibition Drawing from Perception IV juried by Graham Nickson.