Jacquie Herron

My Journey

I have had a passion for creating art since childhood. My art education consists of a diploma in Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Arts and Design and painting courses in the summer from Sir Sanford Fleming School of Art in Haliburton. Since retiring from a career in teaching, I have more time to devote to painting.
In the past 15 years I have begun to find my style and medium as a visual artist. I fell in love with watercolours! I love the spontaneity and immediacy of this medium. I like to paint quickly and boldly, so watercolour is perfect for me. I like the way you can cover the paper with large washes of colour wet in wet. Then, I like to see how the picture “reveals itself to me” as I build it up with layers of transparent colour. Lately,I like to add the darks to create drama and bring the light into focus. I am not interested with capturing the light and creating movement through the use of pattern, value and shape.
My deepest joy is landscape painting. Though, I enjoy painting flowers, cityscapes, people and spiritually themed pictures, my first love is landscape painting. I partly owe this to my outdoorsy Dad, who took my brother and I camping, fishing, hiking, biking and cross country skiing when I was a child. I feel at home in the great outdoors, and still enjoy hiking and biking but mostly I love to paint “plein air”.
My favourite artists are Tom Thompson, Van Gogh and Monet. They were all passionate, bold painters of nature. Monet was obsessed with capturing the light and mood of a place, while Van Gogh and Thomson interpreted the landscape with passion and intensity. My painting is a journey. Along the way, I make exciting and surprising discoveries. After each painting, I know I am a little further along the path. I thank my creator for this wonderful gift.