Jeanne Chinnis was born and raised in Wilmington, N.C., where she developed an avid interest in drawing, painting and sculpture. She studied Fine Art and Interior Design at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla., and the New York School of Interior Design. After continuing her studies at the Institute Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and with Wolf Kahn at the National Academy School of Art in New York City, Jeanne settled in the Sarasota area.
She had her own interior design firm, Jeanne Chinnis Interiors, working in that field full time while also continuing to paint. She was inspired by living for 22 years on the beautiful and largely undeveloped Braden River in Manatee County, just north of Sarasota. She worked closely with her brother, Rusty Chinnis, who was a contractor primarily on Sarasota’s Siesta Key.
Her life and work also were strongly influenced by her experience caring for a special-needs daughter, and she continues to design the interiors of new buildings at The Haven, a residential facility for children and adults in Sarasota.
An expert’s view
Henri Matisse, too ill to paint at this easel, took to this bed to make his art with paper cut-outs so bright that his eye doctor had him wear sunglasses. You won’t need protective eyewear to view the work of Sarasota painter Jeanne Chinnis. But you will recognize Matisse in her work.
While most of us see foliage as green and tree trunks as brown, Chinnis, who studied interior design at the Ringling School and New York’s School of Interior Design, sees a varied complexion – whole armies of pigment that recall how Matisse captured the natural world in non-natural shades.
To get an idea of Chinnis’ palette, imagine that our skin is transparent and we can see the color of life underneath.
‟I don’t want to paint pretty, realistic landscapes and figurative pieces,” says Chinnis. She even sounds like Matisse, who wrote “I cannot copy nature in a servile way. I must submit to the spirit of the picture.ˮ Chinnis’ kaleidoscope view of the natural world seems to do just that: ‟submit to the spirit of the picture.ˮ
But while Chinnis steers clear of realism, her scenery can’t be said to be un-pretty. She lived on the Braden River. Maybe that has something to do with the attractiveness of her pictures.
– Joan Altabe
Joan Altabe, a Sarasota writer on the arts and architecture, is the author of the book,‟Art Behind the Scenes: One Hundred Masters In and Out of Their Studiosˮ and a contributor to US.Blastingnews.com.