Jessica L Bryant has two studios: one in a former brick schoolhouse in Coeur d'Alene's historic Garden District that she shares with other artists, and a tidy, 10-foot-square space in the basement of her midcentury modern home. Between the two spaces, Bryant has produced award-winning and sought-after watercolor landscapes and been featured in such national publications as Southwest Art and Watercolor Artist, including the winter 2022 cover. Yet before she puts paintbrush to paper, Bryant spends considerable time exploring and reflecting upon the wild places she paints.
"I have always loved landscapes, and on road trips as a child, I would wonder about what lay beyond the rise of each hill, longing to see it all and understand the geography and geology, and how it all relates," Bryant says.
As an adult, Bryant has been translating that wonder into breathtakingly realistic watercolor paintings for nearly 15 years. Her travels as artist-in-residence with the National Park Service have taken her to Colorado's rugged Rocky Mountains, California's sparse Joshua Tree and Alaska's remote Western Arctic National Parklands.
Closer to home, Bryant has trekked through Idaho's Owyhee Canyonlands for the Bureau of Land Management, and painted areas protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act as an artist-in-residence with the Idaho Conservation League.
But a far less remote location, Tubbs Hill with its vistas of Lake Coeur d'Alene, is special for Bryant. In addition to leading painting classes there, Bryant is a board member of the Tubbs Hill Foundation, founded by the late Scott Reed and his wife, former Idaho state Sen. Mary Lou Reed, to preserve the 165-acre park. One of Bryant's Tubbs Hill paintings is on display in the West Wing of the White House, in the office of the Reeds' son Bruce, who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff.
Bryant is currently represented by Coeur d'Alene Galleries, whose litany of Western artists includes Frederic Remington and Charles "C.M." Russell. These icons inspired Bryant's grandmother — an acrylic landscape painter — who in turn inspired a young Bryant to seek out the work of many other artists.
"I spent hours pouring over [Andrew] Wyeth's Helga Pictures and [Georgia] O'Keeffe's In the West," says Bryant, who as a teenager growing up in Minnesota loved the work of Edward Hopper, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí and Pierre Auguste Cot.
Bryant pursued art in high school, drawing classes in college at University of Minnesota, and contemplated various sciences before earning a degree in American studies. It wasn't until 2007 that Bryant rekindled her interest in art after taking a watercolor class and realizing it appealed to her on many levels.
"Watercolor can be deliciously intellectual," Bryant says. "Its transparency and somewhat unpredictable nature require constant problem-solving and critical thinking."
Although she paints beautiful places, Bryant says she is most excited about composition and discoverty.
"All art, in every genre from literature to music to painting, relies on composition for its framework," Bryant says. "Abstract artwork is all about composition, while representational work requires skill in both abstract design and realism, and I really enjoy the dual challenge."
Bryant's days are filled not only with artmaking, but also with the business of art.
"That includes everything from website updates and writing monthly newsletters to entering competitions, responding to clients and ordering materials," says Bryant, who belongs to Allied Artists of America, Richeson75, the Global Association of Watercolor Artists, and the Northwest Watercolor Society.
Her most treasured membership, however, is with the American Watercolor Society, a venerable institution dating to 1866 whose members include some of Bryant's idols, like Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth.
"That's been a major goal since my early years in watercolor, and it's one of the hardest to attain."
