ARTIST STATEMENT – JACQUELINE VERGE

When I paint, I strive to share with others the joy I’ve felt and a glimpse of the special experiences I’ve encountered in the wild.  Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated with, thrilled by and admire wildlife. At heart, I’m still that little girl that loved exploring the fields and forests around my grandfather’s camp calling to the owls, spotting a doe with her fawn, and enjoying the glow of a warm campfire. Because of those incredible childhood experiences, I fell in love with nature and I paint what I love. I intensely enjoy observing all manner of animals, large and small, rare and common, doing the exceptional and the ordinary. That’s something I want to share with everyone. With each painting there is an expression of love and passion poured out with every brush stroke. It comes from deep within, as I get lost in reliving the experience and watch it come to life in pigment and canvas. As attitudes and expressions begin to define themselves on canvas my mind works out paths to follow, light and dark, cheerful or subdued. My desire is to give a glimpse into an untamed world, to stimulate the imagination, to cause the viewer to wonder what lies beyond the boundaries of the canvas edge.

Nature’s beauty and the perils that face it inspire me to share my experiences and to bring attention to what’s happening across the globe. My hope is to remind others of adventures with nature, to help spark that childhood wonder that I felt, to motivate them to go out and enjoy the beauty of nature’s wild places for themselves. I want others to realize that we are in the midst of such special treasures and motivate them to help protect these habitats and wildlife, so that the next generation can have an opportunity to enjoy them for themselves. I want to ignite individuals’ respect and wonder for these creatures and give them motivation to affect a difference. Capturing fragments of this spectacular world enables me to speak to the viewer’s heart, soul and mind.

I create my art from my own encounters in the wild, using my own observations, situations, interactions and photography as the basis for each work. The animals are wild, often there’s interaction, sometimes there’s risk and it’s always breathtaking. Each work is drawn from a wide range of interactions and composed from many images, it evolves as I paint and may take years to finish. As I paint, I couple these realism aspects with my understanding of abstract design and light, to create a composition that is both moving and pleasing to the eye. My goal is to capture those rare, exquisite and unique moments and to share them on canvas melding design and real-life in a finished work that inspires and pleases others.