(Evening Glory by Jacqueline Newbold)
For Jacqueline Newbold, a watercolor and mixed media artist, living abroad and travelling was a big part of her early life. Born in Tokyo, Newbold grew up in an Air Force family that moved around quite a bit. The family lived in Paris and Greece before settling in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1960s. Her mother is from France and Newbold speaks fluent French.
After earning a bachelor of science in Botany from the University of Alabama, Newbold decided to explore the West and found work as a seasonal firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon. When that job ended, she came to Bend, where she landed a position as a lab technician for Bend Research for 18 years. She began to paint seriously and sell her work in 2000.
Although now comfortably settled here, she still often visits France and Italy to paint and teach classes. “My journeys give me a never-ending source of inspiration to represent little gems of the world in my color-filled paintings,” she says. Her work on display at the Red Chair Gallery features vibrant scenes of Provence and Tuscany, although she also now paints landscapes of Central Oregon. Her constant goal, she explains, is “using the free-flowing nature of watercolor to its fullest potential to portray the landscape with an impressionistic touch.”
Newbold shares her passion for watercolor and mixed-media art journaling by teaching at her private studio in Bend, at Art Unraveled Art Retreats in Phoenix, and the Art & Soul Retreats in Portland. She has conducted five international workshops and is excited about her upcoming watercolor workshop in Provence, France this May.