jacqueline de montaigne artist profile because art matters

JACQUELINE de MONTAIGNE

(Portugal ◊ 1980)

JACQUELINE DE MONTAIGNE is an Anglo-Portuguese painter, mural and pasteup artist whose dramatic, nature infused figurative art can be found in international galleries and Europe's prominent street art scene where her use of classical gilding techniques in an urban context, has become her signature.

De Montaigne is a self-taught artist with an academic background in medical ethics and health sciences who only decided to pursue her art career fully in 2018. Her work is now represented in both private and public international collections with over 60 private and public large scale murals under her belt as well as having her art used in social initiatives in Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Jacquelines work is introspective and autobiographical, where the artist uses secondary texts, images and the visual identity of her figures to explore our true nature versus imposed beliefs and societal expectations.

Nature also has a strong presence throughout the artist's work, bringing an ethereal calm where the chosen fauna and flora each have symbolic meanings where the language of flowers is extensively explored.

Watercolour is the artists preferred medium which she fell in love with as a child, originally wanting to pursue scientific illustration. Regardless of the surface she is working on, she always tries to manipulate her materials to create the effects and fluidity of watercolours - often encompassing and illuminating her subjects with precious metals whether a small scientific grade watercolour, a large canvas or a 400m/2 public street art mural on a weathered concrete wall. Her watercolour style of painting also leaves a reduced ecological footprint as the water based paint and pigment is diluted and layered the same way as watercolours are.

Jacqueline currently lives in Cascais, Portugal, where she maintains a full time studio practise.

FACTS

  1. Book addict
  2. Nature junkie 
  3. Polymath workaholic ethicist geek

INSPIRATIONS 

Books - biology, zoology and botanical, as well as dramatic biographies/memoirs and poetry.  

The underdog and human transparency; the stories behind what moulded us, the good and the bad, and how they made us the way we are today. 

Guincho or Cresmina beach; it’s where I go to think and un-think. 

INFLUENCES All things visceral

VISIONS (artistic) bringing nature and figurative art as well as classical gilding techniques into both fine art and urban contexts through impactful, fluid and minimally invasive interventions where a balance between flora, fauna and people can be experienced and renewed.  

STUDIO ESSENTIALS precious metal leaf, my watercolour box, good brushes, natural light, coffee, background silence, music and my sausage dog, Pickle.

COLOR 1 at a time or as little as possible + black & white for tone. 

MEDIUM watercolour or anything I can dilute and manipulate to mimic it + precious metal leaf.

NOISE punk, grunge, rock, jazz, classical etc, and podcasts - no day is the same but they all begin with BBC world news!