This story was featured in the January 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
You might call impressionist Barbara Jaenicke a painter of light. Light-filled landscapes in any region and any season fascinate her, but the Northwest winters especially suit her taste for capturing the play of light and shadow on snow. Before Jaenicke relocated with her family to Bend, OR, from Georgia last year, she made treks to snowy areas to paint and gather reference material. Now she can access these backdrops right outside her door.
“Any scene that allows me to play warms up against cools holds my attention,” says
Jaenicke, who enjoys “bouncing back and forth” between oils and pastels and paints
outdoors regularly. “I try to push myself beyond ‘snapshot’ painting,” she says, “or simply copying individual items I see in the landscape.”
In works like WINTER’S SILENT CRESCENDO, Jaenicke so truthfully conveys wintertime’s waning, hazy light and the nuanced palette of snow, you can almost sense the frosty air and crunch of cold powder underfoot. The painting, which was juried into the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition
in 2016, was inspired by Jaenicke’s first snowshoeing excursion in Bend, she says, “through virgin snow in a quiet, remote winter wonderland.” The denouement of the hike, she adds, was “a gorgeous burst of intense late-afternoon sun.”
Jaenicke, who worked as an advertising art director for many years, turned to fine art full time in 2002. She has been recognized as an Eminent Pastelist by the International Association of Pastel Societies and teaches pastel and oil painting workshops around the country. See Jaenicke’s work at Mockingbird Gallery, Bend, OR; The Artful Deposit,
Bordentown, NJ; Stoneheart Gallery, Evergreen, CO; Weiler House Fine Art Gallery, Fort Worth, TX; and www.barbarajaenicke.com. —Kim Agricola
This story was featured in the January 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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