March 9, 2025
McClain’s Wall of Women’s Accomplishment.
Jane McClain won an award for her watercolor painting in 1953. Then she took a break from painting for a while.
Now, at age 87, she is showing her work of 20 years at Westport Center for the Arts.
McClain’s show focuses on two of her passions, her travels and a long-term project called the Wall of Women’s Achievement. It opens March 21 at the Westport Presbyterian Church, 201 Westport Road, where it will be on display through May.
Her love of art began in junior high school, when she took art classes five days a week. She showed talent and even won a Scholastic Gold Key for her watercolors.
McClain decided not to pursue art. Instead, she got married to a Methodist ministry student. That led to work in the church and ecumenically as she and her husband were assigned to various countries. “I worked, taught and typed my way around the world,” she said. Her paintings in the show include scenes from China, Turkey, Finland, India, and various places in the United States.
She also worked for more than a decade for the National Association for Insurance Commissioners developing educational programs.
Even though she wasn’t always able to focus on her artwork, she used her skills to make her own clothes and decorate her home. When she retired, she says “I had always wanted to go back to watercolor.”
McClain has taken watercolor workshops with Ed Fenendael, a popular artist who studied at the Kansas City Art Institute among other places. He comes to Kansas City for a yearly workshop, and McClain was able to return to her passion. She still found watercolor art to be intellectually challenging and otherwise satisfying.
“I love mixing colors,” she says.
She also joined a local artist group which included weekly painting sessions with Jim Ryon, where she found “I really bonded with the people in my painting group.”
McClain’s Wall of Women’s Achievement is a large photo montage chronicling women’s achievements over 120 years, from Susan B. Anthony’s retirement in 1900 to Kamala Harris’ election as vice president in 2020.
“Around 2005, I decided to seriously work on it,” McClain says. “I began displaying it at libraries, educational institutions, and conferences as well as when I gave presentations on women’s journey toward equality during our first 100 years of voting.”
“It’s not just for women. It’s also for men,” McClain says. The montage reminds people that women have demonstrated they can do anything, although “you may have to wait 50 years to do it.”
This work will also be on display at the Westport Center for the Arts during March, which is Women’s History Month. McClain feels that makes it an appropriate time to show her travel works as well.
“Because my watercolors are a result of a woman recovering her passion in retirement.”