About Gretchen Durst Jacobs
My current work explores the balance between structure and intuition. The integration of gestural abstraction with an underlying grid reflects my fascination with how natural systems and sacred geometry visually express the unpredictability of personal growth and connection.
By working from nature through observation and memory. The grid functions as both a structural and compositional element alternating between leading the composition and receding into the background, creating dynamic tension. The interplay between the geometry of the grid and the fluidity of gestural abstraction energizes my work.
Grid Works
Over the years, my practice has evolved into a series of distinct yet interconnected bodies of work. Each series reflects a specific phase of exploration, ranging from deeply personal narratives to formal investigations of structure, gesture, and natural systems. While the materials and approaches may vary, all are unified by an ongoing dialogue between intuition and analysis, a fascination with the natural world, and a commitment to abstraction as a way of expressing transformation, memory, and connection.
Large Grid Paintings
Grid paintings harmonize my enduring fascination with gestural abstraction and geometric systems found in nature—from Sacred Geometry to vibrational patterns—creating a dynamic visual dialogue between organic expression and underlying order.
Mulberry Works
These Mulberry transfers capture ethereal echoes of my original paintings, where only embossed grid lines remain as ghostly structural elements, creating mysterious compositions that embrace both reduction and organic transformation.
Small Grid Paintings
The grid became altered in the line width color and layout. Smaller works helped with this new development.
In these smaller works, the grid evolves beyond rigid structure as variations in line width, color, and layout create a more dynamic framework, allowing for intimate exploration and unexpected compositional developments.
Artifact Grids
Encaustic monotype lends itself well to exploration creative play and the balance between structure and intuition. Hand-drawn Sharpie grids loosely reference sacred geometry, embracing imperfection and spontaneity. Layered encaustic color adds depth and translucency, highlighting the tension between order and organic flow.
Archive
A Journey Through Previous Works
This archive offers a window into years of artistic exploration—through drawing, painting, and printmaking—each piece a response to nature, intuition, and material. From immersive en plein air landscapes to layered printmaking experiments and collage, these works trace the evolution of perception and process. Whether rooted in the quiet rhythms of the natural world or born from technical surprises in the studio, each piece reflects a moment of presence, a shift in seeing, and a dialogue between inner and outer landscapes.
