Gallery

Jacqueline Welch

My current painting practice is narrative and addresses the animal as companion. I am specifically intrigued by the bond between humans and dogs. In several series of paintings I advocate for street dogs, shelter dogs and racetrack dogs and their right to be life-long companions. My concerns involve the plight of street dogs of Bali where there are few organized animal welfare programs, the struggle by many US communities to establish no-kill shelters, the rise in abandoned pets due to a failing economy and the continued practice by some greyhound racing kennels to send non-racers to research labs or to be unnecessarily euthanized. In my work the dogs become patron saints that represent a human idiosyncrasy or the hero figure of a miraculous event.

Altarpieces, religious symbols and the landscape also interest me. The sacred and pagan elements in my work are derived from my Irish-Catholic background and my interest in medieval painting and celtic art. The landscapes I create are culled from walks in Letchworth State Park, Wellesley Island, Durand Eastman Park, Fairhaven and Marilla.

I refer to Petfinder.com and my own photos for the central characters in these paintings. My studio process is drawing intensive; I generally work on gessoed panels, sometimes in a triptych format. Paint is applied in semi-transparent layers of oil glazes using an oil wipe technique so that parts of the drawing show through.