The Art of British Columbia Painter Jordanka Yaretz

  Jordanka Yaretz approached the Gallery in July of 2008 asking if we might consider including her art in our gallery of artists.  After several weeks of looking into her art and her art business, we were pleased to add Ms. Yaretz to our list of very talented artists being shown and offered by our gallery. 

   Jordanka was born and raised in Burgas, Bulgaria before coming to Canada in 1970.  She currently resides with her family in British Columbia.  She has had a strong interest in painting since her earliest years, but did not have the opportunity or means to acquire for formal training... she is a self-taught artist and, as such, has developed a self-developed unique style and focus for her paintings  Many of her first inspirations for paintings came from the National Geographic Magazine... I have to smile, I wonder how many of are artists - especially wildlife artists - go their start with the NGM.

   In a search for what fit her interests and style best, Jordanka experimented with all types of medium - pastels, oils, pen and pencil, etc. - before falling in love with color palette and possibilities associated with acrylics.  Her first series of paintings were experiments in realism... flowers, wildlife and portraiture. Today, Jordanka calls her art more abstract, more naive and more primitive... nineteen years in the making.

   As Jordanka tells it, "naive" art refers to the work being done by an untrained artist without the traditional forms of art education.  Naive art is characterized by an unorthodox approach to the traditional formal qualities of painting... i.e. awkward drawing skills (resulting in child-like images), patterns in the art, un-refined colors, and simplistic creations.  Historically, notable naive artists include Henri Rousseau, Camille Bombois and Alfred Wallis.  "Naive" artists are sometimes referred to as "primitive" artists.   

   Pablo Picasso once said "I could paint realistic portraits by age 10, but it took me a lifetime to learn how to paint like a child."

   Jordanka has participated in countless juried shows - and has won numerous awards - in both Canada and the United States.  She has been features in local newspapers and on local television networks. Eight of her paintings have been reproduced on UNICEF Christmas cards and within Leukemia Research Fund (of British Columbia) publications.  Her originals hang in both private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States, England, Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, Bulgaria, Slovenija, and Belgium.

   Inspired by her mountainous and tree-filled environment, many of Jordanka's latest works feature trees of all shapes and colors... each with a soul and spirit of its own.  You'll see these in her gallery, below.

This is a gallery in the process of development, please, be patient.