By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
For local artist Jacqui Keseluk painting is her passion and while she does it for herself, she’s seeing more of her paintings being purchased and that just brings a whole new thrill she says.
Currently Keseluk is working on a commissioned piece of one of the free-range stallions that roams the hills behind The Cottages. She says the colour is stunning, “a bay, orangey fawn colour, I suppose, and then the legs are like dark brown, and he has a black and brown mane.”
She describes herself as a Canadian contemporary wildlife artist and she works predominantly with oils. She used to work with acrylics but happenstance changed all that.
Jacqui Keseluk painting/photo
She relates the story of her grandmother who was an artist. “She painted with oil, and she had passed away years before, but I found a box in my parents basement that my grandfather handmade for my grandmother, and it contained all of her oil paints and brushes. Some of them were all dried up, but it had that special element, you know, the gesture that he made this special thing for her.”
This led her to experimenting with the oils. “I knew nothing about them,” she says but there is an artist up the street from her parents house who taught her a little bit about using the oils and she just “started hanging around this artist,” she said. And as for the acrylics, she won’t be going back after getting hooked on the oils.
“I love working with oils. I find they’re way more forgiving than acrylic, because acrylic dries so quickly. So if I’m working on a painting, one day, I can come back the next and still work. And I much prefer oil for the blending. It just has more depth.”
An interesting side note, that particular artist did a painting of Keseluk which was commissioned to be on display in the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona for International Women’s Day 2019. And she even made it to the show opening in Barcelona – “super cool,” she enthuses.
And even cooler is the fact that painting is now sitting on the surface of the moon, part of the Lunar Codex – a curated archive of cultural works from across the globe.
Jacqui Keseluk painting/photo
Her art focus took another distinct turn when she packed up her stuff into her hatchback, along with border collie and art supplies, and drove across the country starting in Nova Scotia and absorbing the inspiration as she went.
“Seeing the wildlife and the landscapes, that really inspired me to hone in on Canadian subject matter,” she said.
Her first big sale – a great white shark – was when she was living in North Vancouver, “That’s when I realized I could monetize something that I really enjoyed doing. Not that that’s the goal, I just love painting. It’s the one thing that really, truly feeds my soul.
“Whether I sell paintings or not, I will still paint,” she adds.
From North Van she ended up in Fernie for about seven months. “Being in the Elk Valley was so inspiring,” she says of the stunning beauty of that area.
Her style is what’s known as “high realism” which means it has not just incredible life-like detail, but actual anatomically exacting details in the case of an animal like the horse she’s working on.
Jacqui Keseluk painting/photo
“I want to capture the anatomy, the shapes, the curves, the organic truth of the animal,” she says.
“I get caught up in each brush stroke. When I’m painting I don’t actually see the full painting. I don’t see the forest for the trees. I’m caught up in each individual brush stroke and I don’t actually see what I’m creating until I take a break after a few hours and step back and look at it.”
As for what’s next, she’s – along with the horse – currently working on a bug collection but she’s thinking she might just dabble in landscapes next. “It’s just so beautiful out there I want to start painting mountains and sunsets,” she says. And there is of course that logical connection to animals (and bugs), she observes.
She says she paints as much as possible and so far has sold about 30 of her works. She’s also been in a few shows, just small scale, she adds. And some of her work is hanging at the Nk’Mip Cellars wine shop too.
Jacqui Keseluk painting/photo
She’s also branched out to create blank greeting cards which she has in seven wine shops along with the Oliver and Osoyoos visitor centres.
Creativity has long been a part of her life, including when she was working as a pastry chef nearly 15 years ago. Her cake was even the President’s Choice product across Canada for two years.
For now she’s just revelling in the art for the pure joy of it, but she does admit it does feel good to sell pieces. “I paint for myself first and foremost. But when someone loves my art enough that they’re willing to spend money and hang it in their house, yeah, that’s awesome.”
For more information visit her website at jacquikeseluk.ca
