 CV - Wendy Jagger | downloads: 82 | type: pdf | size: 102 kB |
About Wendy Jagger
Artist Statement
My love of the outdoors was engendered whilst camping with my family and Scouts. Skiing trips created a thirst for all aspects of alpine life and more recently, prompted a move to Mansfield, where we are building a new home and studio / gallery.
Surrounded by the beautiful and sometimes austere alpine environment of Victoria’s North East, my work is strongly influenced by its seasonal landscapes. Field drawings are developed in the studio in a range of painting media or depicted in translucent porcelain imagery.
I create an impression of what it feels like to pause momentarily, mid-descent, on a bitter August morning after a heavy fall of snow. The snow-catching fences are encrusted with rime ice, the snow gums bow under their weighty mantle and Little Buller stands sentinel to the dusted blue ranges beyond. The sculptural relief of the etched surface becomes tonally rendered when illuminated, revealing the pictorial landscape wrapped around the vessel.
Working with Southern Ice porcelain, etching the imagery, layer by layer into the thrown walls of the vessel is painstaking and fraught with danger. At any moment, the bone dry clay could shatter, as I rub away at the shellac resist, eroding the surface. Yet it is exciting. It’s like painting with light. It’s like a treasure hunt, as I search for that luminous translucency. It is a quest of passion.
Native flora features significantly in my current work too. The unique and varied structure of our beautiful wildflowers intrigues me.