Bio
b. 1974, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Janelle Douglas is a self-taught Mississippi artist who has spent over 20 years exploring the worlds of oil pastel, watercolor, and acrylic painting. She grew up in the rural Delta towns of Merigold and Cleveland before later settling in Oxford and then Greenville, where she lived for eleven years as an adult. These places—rooted in rich culture, stark contrasts, and layered histories—continue to influence her creative process today.
Her abstract paintings often reflect a sense of mysticism, weaving natural forms with symbolism to explore themes of self-discovery. A registered nurse for 26 years, Douglas began deepening her art practice in 2020. In January 2025, she fully stepped into her identity as a professional artist. Her work has been exhibited at Ellis Gallery (Cleveland, MS), Sanctuary Arts Festival (Oxford, MS), and the One Night Stand art show (Oxford, MS). In December 2025, her creative journey and transition to full-time artist were featured in Bold Journey Magazine. She draws endless inspiration from both the Mississippi landscape and the emotional terrains she navigates through her work.
She currently lives and works in Madison, MS.
Artist Statement
In my work, I explore the connection between emotion, memory, and place—often through the layered language of abstraction. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, I carry its wide skies, flat fields, and river rhythms in my bones. Though I’ve lived in other places, the Delta remains my creative ground. Its contrasts—beauty and pain, stillness and unrest, silence and song—continue to shape how I see and what I paint.
I begin each piece with a feeling, a vision, or a pulse I can’t fully name. Often, I don’t know what the painting will become—I simply follow the energy and let the work reveal itself through layers of color, texture, and mark-making. This process is intuitive and deeply personal, built on trust and a willingness to not know.
Over time, I’ve come to see my paintings as emotional landscapes. Some are rooted in memory and place, while others emerge from the inner terrain—what it means to feel uncertain, to be in-between, to long for something unnamed. There’s often a quiet mysticism in the work, a symbolic undercurrent that invites viewers to pause and look inward.
Titles like Listening, The More I Know…, and Delta Echoes and Toltec Revelations are part of the conversation—breadcrumbs for reflection and connection. My hope is that each piece meets someone where they are and offers them a place to feel, to wonder, or to remember.
Through this practice, I’m not just painting—I’m preserving moments, holding questions, and making space for what’s unfolding. This is how I find my way home.