Janet Kerchner

About the Artist

I am a graduate of UNH (class of 1970 BS in art educ.) and MICA (1978) with a Master's Degree in Art Education. I taught art in elementary schools, both public and private for a total of 18 years. I began my professional work in 2003, when I retired from teaching, and opened my business, "Your Art's Desire," which provides commissioned artwork of all sorts. I am the sole proprietor and do all the work myself. The majority of my work has been portrait painting in either oils or pastels. I am, however, proficient in a multitude of artistic media and have done scenic painting, watercolors, digital artwork (using Photoshop and Illustrator), sculpture, repairs of statuary, paintings and frames, restoration of old photos, stained glass, woodworking, some jewelry repair, fabric art (banners and church paraments), sewing and needlework. and pretty much anything that anyone needs. If anyone needs artistic work of any sort, I can pretty much provide it. My prices vary accordingly and are based on the estimated time that I anticipate the work to take. 

Artist's Statement

In everything I do I strive with meticulous detail to create the best representation of the desired product. With portraits, my painting style is primarily realistic to the point of nearly photographical detail, yet I still relish the soft edges and nuances of color that can be found in even plain white. Capturing the interplay of varied colors and their effects on each other is a lovely challenge that I enjoy duplicating. In other arts and crafts, I put forth the same energy to do my most exacting work. If it doesn't meet my standards then it is not good enough for my customers. My engineering-type mindset drives me to learn about and perfect each art technique and satisfies my desire for variety and challenge. These experiences in turn give me the ability to provide so many services to my clients.