About Jarea Art Studio

Family bonds are strong at Jarea Art Studio in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

The creative business began 15 years ago when mother-daughter team Jantje Blokhuis-Mulder and Andrea Mulder-Slater combined their names and their talent to form Jarea. Beginning with original paintings Jantje and Andrea then produced floorcloths and later designed, constructed and decorated woodburned board games and boxes, as the women found a market for their work.

Jarea is truly a family enterprise. Andrea's husband, artist Geoff Slater, joined the studio in 1997 and today contributes his talents in the form of paintings, drawings and murals. Jantje’s husband Hank, a writer, makes wooden frames and crates for the artwork, which is shipped worldwide.

Much of the studio’s business is conducted online via an Internet website at www.JareaArt.com. However, seven years ago, Jantje, Andrea and Geoff opened a gallery space in downtown St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, and it is here, where visitors will find the very unique creations of three very different artists.

Jantje's work reflects her seaside surroundings and her colourful collages, paintings, woodburnings and sculptures are a delight to behold. Her interest in functional art goes back many years and she says, "I've always been fascinated with the idea of making something useful look beautiful."

Andrea's images of the land and sea sit in direct contrast to her abstracts and paintings inspired by and painted with, coffee. When asked how she began working with this unusual medium, Andrea explains, "I started painting with coffee after years of accidentally dipping my paintbrush into my coffee cup."

Geoff's one-line acrylics and watercolours feature local people and places. Geoff has observed that those visiting the gallery often can't believe that his images are painted using one continuous line with a beginning and an ending. He says, “Most people think my line paintings are mazes, so I’ve started calling my work 'amazing art'."

Art education is important to the artists of Jarea Art Studio which is why, in 1997, Jan and Andrea co-founded KinderArt.com, a website featuring thousands of free art lessons for children ages 4 to 14, which registers close to four million page views a month. In their own community, the women have regularly visited the classrooms at Vincent Massey Elementary School (local elementary school) and for the past four years they have been teaching art to thousands of Grand Circle Travel bus tour visitors.

In her capacity as a board member at Sunbury Shores (an arts and nature centre in St. Andrews), Jan enlisted Andrea’s expertise and together, the two spearheaded the CLASS program. This program ensures that all children in St. Andrews, as well as at-risk youth from the neighbouring communities of St. George and St. Stephen, have the opportunity to study art at Sunbury Shores. The initiative, now entering its third year, has seen close to 400 students take part. Meanwhile, Geoff, in his role as youth mentor at Sir James Dunn Academy (local high school), has for the past number of years worked with middle and high school students to design and execute five murals in the school. More recently, the three have been working with children at Deer Island Community School. It is a location accessible via a 20 minute ferry ride.

Since settling in St. Andrews, these creative partners have been involved in a number of community projects and they have literally been painting the town with bright, colourful murals To date, many indoor and outdoor surfaces have been painted and several of these large-scale works of art can be found throughout St. Andrews. Some of the more visible projects include the town’s water reservoir, the King Street wall of Cockburn’s Drug Store, Kandyland, interior doors at the Passamaquoddy Lodge and the walls of the girls and boys washrooms at Vincent Massey Elementary School. In addition, several private homeowners in town have allowed their walls and garage doors to become canvases for these three muralists.

Most recently, Geoff, working solo, has undertaken to recreate a 100-year-old scene on the side of the St. Andrews Hardware Store. When finished (in the fall of 2007) it will measure roughly 25 by 60 feet. The view being depicted features the St. Andrews waterfront as it appeared in 1907. "I think it is a nice reminder for folks in town that as much as St. Andrews has changed, its character has remained nearly untouched for 100 years." says Geoff, “I am pleased to be a part of preserving and embracing our history and I hope people in the area will be happy with the final product because I would love to do more."

One of our ongoing projects is the Fundy Art Guide. This is an artists' studio and gallery guide which features locations in New Brunswick and Maine. We organize this project as volunteers. It is meant to feature and promote artists who live and/or work along the Bay of Fundy.