The Pampas and Grass Series
complex space created in Ms. Jacob's paintings of overlapping pampas reeds..."
C. Payne - "Eclecticism characterizes exhibit at Leon Loard" - Montgomery Advertiser - October 7, 1990
Pampas Series, No. 18 Watercolor 22x30 |
The elongated leaves of pampas
grass
with their patterns, rhythms and repetitions are the impetus for this series. At the time, this was the largest and most involved series I had developed in regards to the number of paintings and the amount of time spent on them. Well over 100 watercolor paintings were completed in the Grass and Pampas Series. |
Pampas Series, No. 24 Watercolor 22x30 |
Many washes of transparent
color reveal the depths
of layered and repeated old and new growth. Interpretations range from precise realism to exaggerated abstractions most often in watercolor, but occasionally in acrylic on canvas. |
Pampas Series, No.16 Watercolor 22x30 |
Each piece required many hours
to complete and
while painting, it occurred to me that these great mounds of grass might be a metaphor for generational interactions. The behavioral patterns of old and new growth; youth generating an obvious flamboyance; while a more interesting and complex arrangement of dried, curled and bleached leaves provides an underlying structure. This thought probably came to me because "generational interactions" aptly described my own life at the time. |
Grass Series, No. 30 Watercolor 30x22 |
Besides the layering mounds
of pampas grass, a concurrent
series involves a variety of other grasses. Water grass naturally followed, due to my proximity to the wetlands of Louisiana and was my later focus in regards to the grass series. Parallel series of other elongated leaf forms included palms, bamboo, daylily, iris and similar plants. |
