About
Jane Gillespie spent most of her youth in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Salem, Virginia. Because of this, she has always had a great love of nature and has an unquenched and unconquerable desire to try to capture this beauty. Her interests took her into the study of herbs where she became an herbalist and helped design and create a public herb garden in Indiana while living there. Her friends often entreated her to create herbal wreaths and dried bouquets. After raising four children, Jane received her first art instruction from her mother-in-law Chole Gillespie. Chole has won various awards and had many exhibits. Her paintings are owned by private collectors. Jane has also been instructed by Michael Shane Neal, Jody Thompson, Pat Thompson, Iain Stewart, and Bob Burridge as well as many other artists. Jane's work has been exhibited at Local Color Art Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, as a featured artist at Collection Art Gallery, Paul LeQuire and Company, Cannon County Art Center, Customs House Museum, and Chole's Art Gallery & Studio in McMinnville Tennessee. While at Local Color Art Gallery, three of her paintings were purchased for the making the movie, THE DOTTIE WEST STORY. She also opened, co-owned, and operated Chole's Art Gallery & Studio with fellow artist and friend Linda Dunlap. She has been commissioned by The Heritage Alliance, McMinnville's local historian and alderman, and private collectors to restore some historic paintings including a forty year old mural at Regions Bank, formerly known as City Bank & Trust, which was damaged while the bank was being renovated. Jane has just retired from a successful teaching career (Who's Who of America) after thirty-four years. She is the mother of four grown children, grandmother of eight, and the wife of a very supportive husband, David. Jane paints for the pure joy it gives her. She enjoys painting with watercolors, oils, and recently acrylics. She loves the delicacy of the watercolors, but truly enjoys the challenge of oils.