Janice “Ecinja” McCaskill is an artist who creates paintings and artworks that reflect ancestral oral stories.

 

McCaskill’s paintings are characterized by bold colors that are driven by emotions. 

 

Janice Ecinja McCaskill was born and raised in sunny Tampa, Florida where the skies are bluer and the trees are greener and the characters in her paintings are more colorful. Since Florida is the closest to the equator, Ecinja attributes the vibrant colors in her work to the environment in which she grew up.

She favors acrylic paint because of its versatility and ability to be both transparent or opaque at the same time. Acrylic paints allows her to manipulate the paints while she creates her own color spectrum.

Ecinja grew up in a family of storytellers and so, each painting conveys a message as a colorful story unfolds. The characters in her paintings are surrounded by or involved with nature to show the vital role in the relationship between humans and nature.
Using acrylic paint, vivid characters, and bold colors, she invites the viewer to participate in her story through her paintings.

Her greatest achievements was to be juried into the Art Elevated Exhibition held in the New York City Garment District, to be selected to participate in the ARTBOX Project held in New York, and lastly, to be one of the artist in Florida to be selected and mentored by The Florida Highwaymen artist, James Gibson.