Au Café Mus Painting

Born in Detroit Michigan, Jacqueline now reside in Tucson, Arizona. After receiving a BA in painting and drawing from UCLA, she traveled to France where she completed graduate studies in art and art history. After a career of working in universities and colleges, She decided to devote myself to her first love, oil painting. Since becoming a full time artist, she has exhibited her work in local, regional, national and international venues. She has won two honorable mention awards and received a grant for a residency in the south of France. Artist Statement I often use the term "observations" to describe my practice of creating narrative oil paintings from observational drawings and photographs that I have taken. From these visual resources I constructs multiple-figure compositions depicting common people doing common things in common situations. By emphasizing everyday occurrences, the ordinary becomes extraordinarily interesting. The invented stories, executed with painterly, loose brush strokes, represent moments in time. My artwork is inspired by that of Edgar Degas and Toulouse Lautrec, who were influenced by compositional elements found in Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. Thus I use accidental cropping as in a snapshot and off-centered compositions to impart a sense of movement and immediacy. Degas' influence can also be found in my depiction of scenes from contemporary life that emphasize human isolation. Like Degas, my intent is to create a natural, dynamic, or authentic environment that draws in the viewer enabling him/her to explore underlying social realities found in contemporary subject matter.