Jane Seymour Returns to Short Hills for Art Show

Jane Seymour is probably best known for her role as Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, but a lot of her fans know that her art has moved beyond the small or big screen and onto canvas.

While she loves acting, Seymour said painting is the art she does for herself—and, often now, for others.

“It’s my Zen experience,” she told Patch recently. “It’s how I communicate my thoughts and my feelings and not just those of a character I’m playing. When I’m painting, the whole world disappears.”

This weekend, fans of her work can not only see her paintings, sketches and sculptures at the Wentworth Gallery at The Mall at Short Hills, but they can meet the actress-artist as well.

Seymour will visit the gallery for the opening of her latest show—and first show with her eldest son Sean Flynn, a photographer—on Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3.

“My son is a very talented photographer and that has absolutely nothing to do with me,” she said. “I love his work, and it will be nice to have our work shown together.”

Seymour is a mother of four, two grown children (including Sean) and 16-year-old twins, all of whom have various artistic talents from art to music.

She has found that having an in-home painting studio has been a way not only to show how she values art, but a way to connect to her teenagers as well, she said.

“I love when my son and his friends start painting—it’s great to see teenage boys painting in the studio,” she said.

While Seymour is still hard at work acting—her more recent credits include Wedding Crashers, a Law & Order SVU episode and a yet-to-be released movie, Austenland, it is painting that grounds her. She carries small canvases and art supplies for her downtime in hotels, she said.

“It relaxes me,” she said. “With acting, a lot of what you’re doing is dependent on other people. There are a million people that come between you and the finished product.

“But I can lose myself in painting,” she said. “It’s something I do for me. It’s my own reflection on life. And then when that speaks to someone, it’s powerful stuff.”

Seymour said almost anything can inspire her—she is inspired by life all around.

And among the 80 or 90 pieces in the show, collectors will find seascapes, landscapes, portraits and flowers, often a single, bright, vivid flower, and, of course, her signature Open Hearts, which has inspired a foundation and a line of jewelry, as well as paintings and sculptures.

“I am not an artist who does the same thing over and over. I study different styles and techniques,” she said. “And I will paint on commission as well—if someone likes something but wants it in other colors, for instance.”

Seymour lives in Malibu, but travels for her acting and her art shows. This will be the fourth show at the Wentworth Gallery.

“There are wonderful collectors in the area who come every year,” she said. “There’s always something different in the show.”

Seymour will be at the at from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday and from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday.