I met the lively and artistic Jacqueline Moore on Twitter. She graciously shared a gilding tip during a #DecArts TweetChat and we’ve been fast friends ever since. I’ve admired her glorious work for a while and was thrilled when she agreed to be profiled on Fauxology. Her studio creates various works of decorative art, including stunning wood tiles. I think you’ll find her ethereal work so enticing…
Artist Jacqueline Moore
“I see my life as being one on a lively ocean seated keenly in a rowing boat with one oar, navigated only by the wind and wave and will,” says artist Jacqueline Moore. In England, Jacqueline was born into a family of artists and was encouraged to study Decorative Painting and Drawing as well as the history of Art, Design & Architecture. After traveling throughout the world, she settled in Santa Monica, CA and opened her eponymous studio in 1996. She says of her background, “From this foundation and vigorous body of schooling and study that has been so deftly observed and considered, I can release the work through me and allow it to fly free and soar”. In addition to her thriving decorative studio, Jacqueline was recent approached to use the works of architect Julia Morgan, who designed Hearst Castle, to create an incredible line of wood tiles. She’s also been featured in several publications, including Interiors magazine. We talk a bit about her influences and that exciting venture with Hearst Castle.
Wood Tile Countertop by Jacqueline Moore
Ornamental Doorway
Handpainted Furniture
Jacqueline, you have an incredible artisan philosophy.
There is a life-long road of studying Art History in my work and a reverence to the differing artistic influences that flow through it. Historical reverence and reference is paramount, and fantastically present in my work. I am a history major, a copious reader who hungrily devours the “whys and wheres” of everything. What is the story behind the work, what is the reason for creating this image or that colour, there at that time? Everything is truly felt and handled in a loving form of expression. I align myself to support the work being historical and faithful but still make room for my personal take on the whole thing.
Occasional Table in the style of Sheraton with hand-crackled age, softened black tones and worn gold leaf.
Who are some of your influences?
I was always keenly inspired by the Expressionists, because I admire the powerful stand the artists took in the face of rising Nazism and the immense potential consequence of persecution that they balanced and had to face, and consider, in creating and presenting their work. The absolute boldness, the dare in their work, is what moves me. To be different, to say what is inside of you, regardless of whether it rocks and disrupts people and ultimately will not serve yourself in well being except for the expanse of the spirit.
I am also drawn and moved by the artists of the Surrealist period because of their immense creation of atmosphere, of dreamlike sequences and hyper reality. Each of these movements strove to say something not yet said before. One was to report and be strong, bold and with definitive opinion in the face of potential adversity, the other looked at recognizable forms and showed them in an entirely new way. Unusually juxtaposed, re-scaled, altered just enough to make them part of an unconscious thought, of the absurd and of the imagination. Their profound mystery and vigour and provocation of image have always stirred my spirit.
The awareness of the amazing creations of Jean Antoine Watteau is really supported throughout my work, because I think, the architecture and composition of his work is so finely executed, so rich and daring. It provides essential energies and rhythm, being complex in the same moment it is full of life and of play. For me, he is the Father of Chinoiserie, the father and forerunner of frolic, and play and the Rococo style coming through his 17th Century work that was later from him, given more clear Asian underscore and format. I have had a life-long romance with Chinoiserie and of the Asian style throughout my whole career so far.
Please click to enlarge.
Besides Watteau, there is likely no other driver and constant in my work more significant and factoring than Max Ernst. It is the decalcomania works in the early 40’s that inspire my work, my own paintings and my decorative tiles. For me, he is all you need to see on the use of texture and layers and colours. Fantastically realized, brilliant and imaginative, these almost hallucinatory landscapes have rhythm, layers, and texture that span a lifetime of inspiration for me. Every time you look, you see something else, the detail and consideration.
Sketches, Paintings and Photographs
What artist would you like to commission to create a painting for your home?
The treasured trail of beauty and influence falls to Edvard Munch, because he is my first love in Art. He is the Artist I wrote my thesis on and for whom this thesis now sits at the Munch Museum in Oslo. Here I would have to say that his influence for me is his absolute emotive expression in his work. He absolutely had to paint, and had to paint the images, people, scenes that most haunted, moved or affected his whole way of walking through the world. The need for, and capture of, his life and his emotions released into and found through his painting, holds for me their greatest power.
What has been your most creative act so far?
This is surely dedicated to the development of my wood tiles. I thought of the idea whilst wandering the micro climates of a green garden in Montecito. They are really are an exploration of the self, and prescribe to allow the viewer in on so much information about the creator and influences. Life is always in the details anyway and the journey is ever the holder of the key. Julia Morgan came to me when one of the folks closely associated with Hearst Castle called me and wanted to talk further. Julia’s archives, created and drawn between 1919 and 1937, were all I needed to bear witness to in order to begin with this particular collection. The tangible, layered and finite details of the drawings and hand coloured sketches called out across the a divide in time. I took the impetus, reacting to which image and which facet and element resonated for me and carried it to a different place. A “duet” with Julia is, I hope, what resulted.
Sketches and samples for the Hearst Wood Tile Collection.
On artistry, Jacqueline says, “The idea of folly and play is essential (Watteau) the notion of background and foreground is dedicated (Ernst) but then I exact a truthful kind of independence with it all and create with fearless passion (Munch).” I love the way she looks at life and art — and the eloquent, charming way she expresses herself. Isn’t her work sublime? Please do see her website which has links to a Studio Tour as well as many images of her studio’s work. You can also keep up with Jacqueline on her Facebook page. I’m so glad we were able to profile her today. Thank you, Jacqueline, for your time — and I hope you, dear Readers, have been incredibly inspired. Have a wonderful weekend!
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. Samples of work done with 
