The Solitary Grace of Structures
The Rural Icons of Maine Artist Jean Jack
By Dr. Lisa Belisle , Editor
A Shock of Recognition
Jean Jack doesn’t just see buildings—she feels them.
Sometimes it’s a lone farmhouse glimpsed on a winding road in Northern Maine. Other times it’s a weathered barn in Pound Ridge, New York. The setting doesn’t matter as much as the sensation.
“When I see something I want to paint, the hairs on my arms stand up.”
Her distinctive oil on canvas works capture that electric moment just before memory turns into myth. They’re quiet, architectural, and hauntingly familiar, inviting collectors to pause, breathe, and reflect on what home really means.
From Rockland to the Art Students League
Jean Jack grew up in Rockland, Massachusetts, one of nine children. She was the oldest girl in a boisterous house—the kind where brothers gave noogies and lit hair on fire. Amid the chaos, Jean dreamed of something bigger: New York City.
She made it.
There, she studied at the famed Art Students League under Marshall Glazier and Leo Manso, absorbing the fundamentals of form and shadow that still anchor her work today. But her breakthrough came not in a classroom—but from a quick roadside photo of yellow barns in Connecticut. That painting won first prize at the Silvermine School of Art and quietly launched her career.
Motherhood, Detours, and the Art of Returning
Jean’s story isn’t linear—it’s layered, like her skies.
She paused her career to raise three children and support her husband during his military service. She opened an art and antique gallery in Santa Fe. She painted whenever and however she could, squeezing art into the margins of motherhood and cross-country moves.
It wasn’t until she moved back East and later to Maine that she found the deep artistic rhythm that defines her now. Whether driving through Iowa or revisiting favorite houses on Prince Edward Island, Jean photographs, returns, reimagines, and paints with an intuitive sense of what’s essential.
“I’m not interested in the details as much as the abstractions.”
Sometimes she’ll add water where there wasn’t any. Change a sky. Strip a scene down to its barest elements. Her goal? “To catch the image with my camera from this inconvenient backstage angle,” and then transform it into something that speaks beyond geography.
From Nostalgia to Now
Though often associated with nostalgia, Jean’s paintings resist sentimentality.
They’re architectural meditations—on space, stillness, light. They resonate deeply with collectors who see their own story in that familiar slope of roof or soft band of sky. One of Jean’s collectors said her work reminded him of the Northern Maine farms where his family lived for generations. Others send her emails: “This looks just like the farmhouse I grew up in.”
And yet, Jean herself never lived in a farmhouse. She paints not from memory—but from recognition. The kind that sneaks up and stays with you.
“I don’t paint from memory—I paint from recognition.”
Painting the Same House, Again and Again
Jean doesn’t mind repeating herself.
“I’ve painted the same house from the front, back, side… in white, in color,” she told me. “It just struck me as something I had to keep painting.”
Lately, she’s been experimenting with minimalism: fewer colors, more space, even quieter compositions. But even when she edits herself, she finds her way back to what feels true.
“Then I come in the next morning, wipe the whole thing off, and start over.”
Coming Home to Maine
Jean’s journey—from Massachusetts to New York to New Mexico and finally to Maine—has always been about listening to instinct. She knew she wanted to live in New York. She knew she’d one day live in Maine. She knew she wanted to paint places that gave her goosebumps.
“I always felt like, ‘this is where I could live.’”
Now based in Maine full-time, Jean continues to create from her home studio. Her work can be seen and collected through the Portland Art Gallery website or in person at the Portland Art Gallery in Portland’s historic Old Port.
“The house is the most important thing.”
Her paintings don’t ask for explanation. They invite reflection.
And they’re waiting for you.
Watch the Full Interview
To learn more about Jean’s creative journey in her own words—from lost paintings to minimalism to her deep emotional response to architecture—join our conversation on Radio Maine with Dr. Lisa Belisle.
