Jennifer Peart creates the Sacramento she wants to see through art

Take a moment to picture some of Sacramento's iconic architecture. 

The Tower Bridge as the sun sets. The mid-century modernism of the Sacramento Zoo. The Sacramento water tower.

Now picture them with even more nature surrounding them (and still with “City of Trees” written on them). Or perhaps as the star of their own pulp fiction sci-fi novel.

Sacramento artist Jennifer Peart is bringing her love of nature, architecture and science fiction to landscape painting, and the results are stunning. She spoke with CapRadio’s Chris Nichols on Insight about her work.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Interview Highlights

You call Sacramento home now, but you grew up outside the city. What was your childhood like and how did it inspire your work as an artist?

Sacramento was my ‘Big Town,’ the BIG city. I grew up in Pleasant Valley, which is a small town in El Dorado County in the Sierra Nevada foothills. [It was] acres and acres of wild spaces. I was very fortunate and privileged to just tromp around near rivers and lakes and ponds and arts and time spent outside playing were one in the same to me. 

My parents were very intentional about making sure we were always hiking, fishing, canoeing, camping. That was our entertainment, and some of my earliest memories are of my brother and I drawing on a slab of granite with like campfire wood charcoal and making mud pies outside. So I was so fortunate. I had a glorious childhood and I'm so grateful to my family for instilling that deep connection to the natural world.

You're a contemporary landscape painter. What does that mean? And how did you get to that place in your work?

I do identify as a landscape painter, and I know sometimes landscape painters get a bad rap in the art world. We like to paint our pretty pictures. But I choose to build on the deep, rich history of landscape painting and that relationship the artist has with the natural world and with the land. 

So I call my contemporary landscape paintings “Visionary Landscapes.” What that means to me is I like to envision a different future for our planet. I read and consume a lot of visionary science fiction. No doom and gloom for me. I like [stories where] all problems are solved. And these beautiful healed spaces in nature exist where we have relearned to have a reciprocal relationship with our living breathing planet. 

I like to paint representational images of landscapes and architecture, but I also like to explore it. Adding more trees or being inspired by my science fiction landscapes. I have a collection of pulp science fiction paperback books. And I love the art on the title pages and you can picture like vintage “Star Wars” art, right?

Bridge to the Future, by Jennifer PeartCourtesy of the artist

Incorporating science fiction into landscape painting seems hard to do. Can you describe what you mean and how it plays out in your work?

I took iconic Sacramento landscapes — the Tower Bridge, the entrance to our current Sacramento Zoo — these beautiful iconic structures and I am interested in what our beautiful City of Trees would look like if we further embraced that title or former slogan and added more trees and healed our river lands. 

I am inspired by local seed farms like Hedgerow Farms, that's growing native seed. What does that riverfront, that park look like when we go back to native plants and trees and make sure we are tenders of those places and spaces? So my paintings will have that Tower Bridge, but I roped in those mountains and brought them in closer and I added more trees and the salmon are thriving. My lovely father informed me that my salmon are out of perspective, that's a six foot salmon, but, you know, we get to dream and I love architecture and I love not having to play by the rules of physics and gravity. So I get to have that interplay between what is possible and what is actually in front of us.

When did you decide to really focus on your art as a business?

I had a very supportive system growing up and my parents did encourage me to study art. And I went to school for art and I was at Mills College in Oakland. Before that I was in Sacramento community colleges with some of the best teachers of my career. 

I knew the statistics about artists not making art after art school, and even having that dissonance I still chickened out and I went into teaching. But that's where I was meant to be for that time. I taught in various Northern California Public Schools. I was at Sac City Unified public Waldorf schools for a bit. But then after a while I felt that itch to paint and make art so instead of teaching my students to envision and build a brighter future I get to paint them on my canvas now.

Shadows and Sycamores, by Jennifer Peart.Courtesy of the artist

What advice would you have for someone who wants to go from their love and joy of painting to actually making a living?

In my experience, so many artists and professionals are willing to help and assist and guide or share their experiences. This lovely person — shout out to Jaque Price — I went to high school with her sister. I did not know her except for Instagram and I cold reached out to her and asked her for some advice on applying to art fairs. She picked up the phone and had an hour-long conversation with me and that's just one example. Uli Smith and Jaya King and Michelle Dahl are all local Sacramento artists that have been opening doors for others, not just myself, and are there to advise and help and support within reason. We all are busy and we all have boundaries but I have experienced nothing but sharing and caring, coming back to elementary school teaching right there.