Eric Jacobsen

Artist Statement on Flowers

"My love of flowers started early on. It was nurtured by my mother’s keen eye and love for all things petalled. One of the things she liked to do was pick wildflowers on our walks and arrange them in a vase once she got home. She still does this and thanks to her, so do I. She keeps a bevy of unique smallish vases on her kitchen window sill and in her cupboard for the purpose of displaying her found treasures. Her vases are employed and full from February’s first offering….blossoming snowdrops from the base of a granite hillside nearby ‘till the seasons last gift of purple aster in October. My mom has maintained an extensive flower “picking” garden over the years which she cultivates and cares for with the help of my dad, also a flower lover. From it, she creates beautiful arrangements all summer long and well into the fall. Her bouquets include everything from peonies to zinnias and gladiolus to sunflowers, whatever happens, to be in bloom. Her arrangements are visually stimulating and bring warmth to the home. Simply put, I love flowers because my mom taught me to love flowers. Flowers remind me of my mom."

Biography

Eric Jacobsen was born and raised in New England. He received a BA in History from Gordon College in Wenham, MA in 1989 and studied fine art at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, CT from 1991-1995. At the Academy he received training in the Beaux Arts tradition of drawing and painting from life.

Eric's true inspiration is the amazing beauty that he sees in nature. Jacobsen is a “Plein Air” painter. He takes his oils wherever he goes, setting up on site, working until his painting is finished.

"It is most important to me that my paintings convey a certain mood", Eric says. "I want them to be felt by the viewer without his or her having to analyze or think about them. As a general rule, I try to find strong compositions in nature and then paint the scene accurately while leaving out any extraneous details which would only busy up the painting and detract from the strength of the piece as a whole. My painting process consists of finding a painting site and setting up to paint for a couple of hours, or until the light has changed. For larger paintings, I will return on consecutive days at the same time, under similar lighting conditions to finish a piece.”

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