Artist Heather Jacks currently lives in Maryland. She’s a contemporary photographer and painter whose work can be seen at Foundry gallery in Washington D.C. Painting is a cathartic and expressive process for her. She starts with no preconceived notion about what the work will become. Heather simply listens to her intuition and let the surfaces emerge. Her thoughts are often of the patinas that arise with age, the transition in the structure and texture and color of all things over time. Spontaneous line drawing and mark making are an important part of the process. As the artist applies layer after layer of oil paint mixed with cold wax and scrape back some areas to reveal the underlying colors and layers, she ultimately reaches a point at which she knows that the work is complete. She mixes oil paint at different proportions with cold wax medium.
She then applies the paint using a palate knife, or brayer in layers onto cradled panels (often a sturdy surface). Pastels, oil sticks and powdered pigment are often added into layers of the work. In her technique, paint can be applied wet over dry, or wet over wet paint. After that she scrapes or gouges the paint to bring out the image. She uses various tools to create texture and marks on the surface of the paint. She also applies a solvent to the top layer to remove color in some areas. Heather’s work has been featured at galleries as well as in national and international publications throughout the United States. She specializes in fine art.
