Horned Owl in starry swirly sky painting by Jen Greta Cart

“Above River Road”

“Above River Road” captures the spirit of deepest night along lonely country roads in Maine. The horned owl is painted in a semi-realistic style, allowing her to embody the swirling winds of a sky imbued with the magic of the stars. Does the owl live in the night, or does the night live in the…

A woman in a blue and white lace 1950s hat with feather sees a hawk flying in a sky made of swirls of blue and sparks of orange heat. A tree with spirals for leaves leans in the hot wind. Painting by Jen Greta Cart

Heat Wave

One Day in August We had almost a week in the summer of 2024 where the temperatures climbed to the nineties here in Hallowell, Maine. That’s unusual for us. Things began to take on a surreal shimmer as life in our mostly un- airconditioned houses and workspaces slowed down to essentials. Except for me, who…

Painting of two mothers flying their children like kites from a pier over the ocean

Flying The Kids

This is an ode to mothers and the way they give their children the best experiences they can, guarding them while glorying in the freedom and joy kids radiate while exploring the magic of their world. The two mothers stand firmly anchored on the pier while the wind blows their clothing into beautiful graphic shapes…

New England Farmhouse becomes sailing ship

Now Voyager

A classic white New England house becomes a vessel sailing to new lands and new adventures. A woman of grandmotherly age, in a vintage dress, knits as she captains her ship. Her friends, a green parrot and an orange tabby cat are her loyal crew as she sails bravely into the sunset. I feel that…

The bare feet of the spirit of spring walk drive away the snow.

Lady of Spring

Acrylic 19.5″ x 15.5″ “The Lady of Spring” is about those days in Spring in Maine when life returns. The Maiden Goddess of Spring walks across the land and the snow retreats before her beautiful feet. Her magical footsteps melt the snow and leaves and flowers spring up in her wake. In the snow before…

A red fox passes a double heart gravestone in a forgotten cemetery gone back to woodland

Ever and Ever

This painting of a red fox pausing in her travels by an abandoned gravestone in Maine is about things that endure. The double hearts and cracks of the granite headstone signify the everlasting love of a couple throughout the adversity of their lives. But there’s also a theme I come back to again and again…the…

hula painting, French Polynesia dance painting, South Pacific tatoo designs.

Nuku Hiva

My painting of a hula dancer in the South Pacific is an ode to the way the subject’s body encompasses the beauty of her Island and its culture . The dancer’s skirt is comprised of the swirling designs of Polynesian tattoo art. The painting is named after the Island of Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas…

Maine Mermaid painting. Listen to your inner mermaid

Mermaid Memories

The waters of the Maine coast are full of mermaid magic in my painting about reclaiming wildness and freedom of soul.  If you look closely at the two figures you can see that it’s the same woman, and the young mermaid is calling the older woman back to the sea, back to her true self. …

feminist fairy tale, kiss a toad, princess and the toad, girl with frog, girls with bullfrog, magical frog, magic toad, enchanted prince, enchanted toad, enchanted frog. egg tempera portrait

Ambivalence

A young girl contemplates an enchanted frog prince in this exploration of a young girls contemplation of societal expectations and norms.  Her face is serious, and the toad’s jewel like eye seems to lead into a dark unexplored universe.  The background of willow leaves encloses the moment, and stirs in the breeze of possibilities.  The…

feminist art, sleeping maiden, anti-patriarchy art, cost of being female, woman's reproductive life, pregnancy, fertility, fertile woman, innocent girl, innocent maiden, innocent young woman, feminist painting, biological destiny, moon cycle

In Her Future When She Wakes

Acrylic 18″ x 24″  2016 A maiden in white floats sleeping in a twilight sky.  Above her dreaming and virginal form, moons wax and wane in succession, symbolizing the cycles of her upcoming three or four decades of fertility.  Beneath her mysterious objects grow from a mossy landscape.  On closer inspection we see that these…

Wild Swans Poem, swans flying, patchwork swan, quilted swan, wild swan painting, aerial view of house and fields, Maine swans flying, Edna St. Vincent Millay Wild Swans,

Wild Swans

Acrylic  2017  16″ x 20″ Inspired by Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem of the same name.  The eponymous swans are thrilling, larger than life, their feathers pure as the clouds, freedom made physical.  Meanwhile, down on earth, the landscape seems prettified, pleasantly civilized into a quilt.  Two swans, lower in the sky, made of quilt…

Portrait of a young girl with a lenten rose flower crown by Jen Greta Cart

Lenten Rose

  Egg Tempera portrait of a fifteen year old girl with a theme of rebirth and renewal.  I painted the background pale sky with a variety of blues, creams and greys crosshatched in tiny strokes to give that feeling of limitless sky and contrasted the austerity of bare branches with the life of the girls…

watercolor portrait of scholarly medieval lady reading while relaxing in the coils of her dragon friend. Painting by Jen Greta Cart

Kate and The Dragon

The Subject I did this watercolor portrait of my daughter-in-law, Kate, as a present for my son.  The image of a woman calmly reading while cradled by the immense clawed limbs of a dragon suited the duality of Kate’s scholarly yet valiant personality. The grey dress contrasts with her beautiful pale olive skinned redhead coloring,…

Into My Jungle

2015  Egg Tempera  24″ x 35″ A grey haired woman in a Victorian dress complete with draped bustle and walking parasol sets forth on a path into the jungle that stands as a metaphor for her interior life.  A white bird of paradise flies ahead of her, and a small winged lizard watches from the…