“Color is not merely decorative. It is energy, emotion, and a source of happiness.”
A Life Shaped by Color and Creative Instinct
Jane Gottlieb has spent a lifetime transforming the way ordinary scenes are perceived, building a body of work that radiates optimism, imagination, and visual delight. Born and raised in California and later based in Los Angeles, she traces her artistic identity back to childhood. Long before professional exhibitions and museum collections entered the picture, the thrill of creating and sharing art had already taken hold. One of her earliest works was displayed at her elementary school, an experience that left a lasting impression and revealed the powerful connection that can form between artist and audience. Rather than viewing art as a career choice that emerged later in life, Gottlieb describes creativity as something woven into her character from the beginning. Her enduring fascination with color, shape, and visual storytelling became the foundation for a practice that would continue evolving across decades while remaining rooted in joy, curiosity, and personal expression.
Education played an important role in strengthening that foundation. Gottlieb studied at UC Berkeley, spent a year in Florence through Syracuse University, and completed a BA in Painting and Art History at UCLA in 1968. She later expanded her training through graphic design studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York. These experiences exposed her to a wide range of artistic traditions while sharpening her visual language. Yet formal study represented only one part of her development. Her natural inclination to see the world through color and emotion remained the driving force behind her work. Throughout changing artistic movements and technological advances, she maintained a consistent commitment to creating imagery that feels uplifting, imaginative, and accessible. This combination of academic grounding and intuitive vision helped shape a distinctive creative identity that continues to resonate with audiences internationally.
Before dedicating herself fully to fine art, Gottlieb built extensive professional experience across multiple creative industries. For fourteen years she worked as an art director, designer, and photographer in fields that included advertising, film, publishing, music, fashion, theater, and poster design. Living and working in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco provided opportunities to refine her visual communication skills while gaining insight into diverse creative disciplines. By 1983, she shifted her attention entirely to fine art photography, beginning a period of concentrated artistic exploration that would define the next chapter of her career. The transition allowed her to focus on developing a unique visual vocabulary that merged the sensibilities of painting and photography into a single expressive practice.
Jane Gottlieb: Transforming Photography into a New Reality
Central to Gottlieb’s artistic journey is a willingness to embrace innovation without abandoning the emotional qualities that first inspired her. Rather than limiting herself to conventional photography, she developed a process that expanded the possibilities of the medium. More than thirty-five years ago, she began hand-painting vivid colors directly onto Cibachrome photographic prints, altering familiar scenes with intense hues and imaginative interventions. This technique transformed documentary imagery into something more dreamlike and emotionally charged. The resulting works challenged expectations by presenting photographs that felt simultaneously real and invented. Through color, Gottlieb could reshape architecture, gardens, automobiles, and landscapes into visual experiences that encouraged viewers to reconsider what they were seeing.
As technology evolved, she adapted her methods while preserving the spirit of her original approach. Today, she scans her unique hand-painted photographs as well as an extensive archive of 35mm Kodachrome slides accumulated through years of travel and observation. Using Photoshop as a creative tool rather than a corrective device, she digitally paints, enhances, combines, and reimagines images until they achieve the atmosphere she seeks. Finished works are produced as archival prints on aluminum, canvas, and paper, extending the life and reach of her imagery. For Gottlieb, technology serves as an extension of artistic expression, allowing ideas to become more fully realized while maintaining the warmth, playfulness, and emotional richness that characterize her visual language.
Her creative process remains highly intuitive. She does not follow a rigid schedule or predetermined workflow. Inspiration may emerge unexpectedly, prompting immediate action. From there, images are revised, adjusted, and refined through experimentation until they satisfy her artistic objectives. What stands out most is the sense of enjoyment that accompanies this process. Gottlieb describes artmaking as a source of daily pleasure rather than labor, and that enthusiasm is visible throughout her work. The combination of imagination, technical skill, and continual exploration enables her to transform ordinary subjects into vibrant compositions that invite viewers into a world shaped by possibility, wonder, and color.
The Image That Continues to Inspire
Among the many works created throughout her long career, one image has maintained a particularly strong connection with audiences. Titled Daydream, the piece depicts a simple chair positioned within a window. Although the subject matter appears modest, the photograph has attracted remarkable attention for more than twenty-five years. Gottlieb has returned to the image repeatedly, revising and reworking it through numerous iterations. Each new version introduces subtle changes that deepen its emotional resonance and broaden its accessibility. The enduring appeal of Daydream demonstrates her belief that artistic growth can continue long after a work is first completed, allowing familiar imagery to acquire new meanings over time.
The fascination viewers feel toward Daydream reveals an important aspect of Gottlieb’s artistic philosophy. She has observed that many people imagine themselves occupying the scene, seated in the chair and participating in the quiet moment suggested by the image. This response highlights her ability to create spaces that feel both personal and universal. Rather than imposing a fixed narrative, she offers visual environments that encourage contemplation and imaginative engagement. Through color, atmosphere, and composition, she opens a doorway into a world where viewers become active participants rather than passive observers. The chair functions not only as an object but also as an invitation into a state of reflection and possibility.
This same quality extends throughout her broader body of work. Gardens become enchanted landscapes, automobiles acquire unexpected personalities, and cityscapes glow with heightened emotional energy. Memories gathered through travel across locations such as Paris, London, Greece, Bali, Israel, Corsica, and California are reshaped through her distinctive treatment of color. Each image exists somewhere between observation and imagination. By revisiting places and experiences through artistic transformation, Gottlieb creates works that celebrate the emotional dimension of seeing. Her photographs are not intended merely to document the world but to reveal how memory, feeling, and creative interpretation can alter perception itself.
Jane Gottlieb: A Lasting Presence in Museums and Public Spaces
Recognition of Gottlieb’s achievements extends across museums, galleries, institutions, and public collections around the world. Her work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at venues including the Butler Institute of American Art, Laguna Art Museum, Carnegie Art Museum, Petersen Automotive Museum, Monterey Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York, L’Image Gallery in Rome, MAD Gallery in Milan, and Colorida Gallery in Lisbon. These exhibitions have introduced audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds to her unmistakable approach to color and image-making. The international scope of her exhibition history reflects both the accessibility of her visual language and the lasting appeal of her imaginative transformations.
Collectors and institutions have likewise embraced her work. Pieces by Gottlieb are represented in prominent public and private collections that include the Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Walt Disney Art Collection, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Brookings Institution, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center, and EMI/Capitol Records. Publications have further documented her artistic achievements through books such as Garden Tales and Car Tales, as well as museum exhibition catalogues devoted to her work. These milestones underscore the consistency of a career built upon creative experimentation, technical evolution, and a steadfast commitment to visual pleasure.
Her influence is perhaps most visible through large-scale installations that bring art into everyday environments. More than seventy major works have been installed across UCLA facilities, including the Law Library and the Anderson School of Management, alongside significant installations at UCSB, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, the UCLA Young Research Library, and the UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. Among these projects is the monumental work My Bilbao, measuring five by ten feet. Situated within spaces dedicated to learning, research, and community engagement, these installations extend Gottlieb’s vision beyond gallery walls. They allow students, educators, professionals, and visitors to encounter her luminous imagery as part of daily life, reinforcing her belief in the uplifting and transformative power of color.
