January 2011

New Bern ArtWorks & Company in New Bern, NC, Offers Works by Jill Eberle

New Bern ArtWorks & Company in New Bern, NC, will present the exhibit, Threads: Connections and Communications, features works by Jill Eberle, on view from Jan. 13 through Feb. 29, 2012. A reception will be held on Jan. 13, from 5-8pm.

Much of Eberle’s work is inspired by relationships with family and friends and my responses to interactions with them. Still life paintings are started by looking for objects with interesting shapes and colors that evoke a memory or meaning. The next step is creating an arrangement with a strong underlying geometry which accents the connections Eberle sees between the sometimes disparate objects. While her still life paintings are always done from life, figurative works begin with drawings and sketches, hiring and posing models and combining numerous resources including drawings, painted studies, and photos.

Eberle’s best work makes an emotional connection with the viewer – they sense this is more than a pretty picture or a likeness. Perhaps that connection comes from a captured expression, a bit of nostalgia or an affinity to the color or mood of the painting. She hopes to create a little bit of magic and mystery in each piece – the magic being the skill with which it was executed and the mystery prompting an enjoyable contemplation of the work.

Raised in a beach town in southern Connecticut, Eberle began modeling for noted artist and teacher Robert Brackman as a teenager. Lingering in the studio after classes, she became enamored of the oily smell and the process of painting. But college led her to Ithaca, NY, and a different direction: her initial training was in set design and painting for theatre.

Like many others on a journey in the arts, Eberle found herself engaged in a remarkable number of occupations including being a scene painter, prop builder, illustrator, architectural draftsman, counselor and sailmaker. Over a decade of work in New York City was followed by a six-year stint in the Caribbean living on a sailboat. While there, she began using the skills she had gathered over the years to start painting.

Eventually returning to the United States and settling in North Carolina, Eberle attended East Carolina University where she received the Armstrong merit scholarship and earned her MFA in 2003. The university hired her upon graduation as an Adjunct Professor. She currently teaches a variety of classes in drawing, painting and artistic anatomy while maintaining a studio practice and exhibiting her work throughout the region.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 252/634-9002 or visit (www.newbernartworks.com).

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