“You immediately sense the genuine attraction that Michael has for his subjects,” said a Boston art critic. Jacques’ eye for color, while beautifully executed supports rather than dominates the charming character of each of his paintings; a powerful presence is felt as a result.

Born and raised in Vermont, Jacques (pronounced j-ah-k) began his formal art education at Boston University’s School of Fine Arts. In 1967, he was awarded a Bachelor’s Degree. After two years as an illustrator in the U.S. Army, the painter returned to New England and in 1971, received a Master’s Degree from the Hartford Art School at Connecticut’s University of Hartford.

From Cambridge to Miami, from Washington, D.C. to Santa Barbara - Jacques’ paintings, etchings and serigraphs have been widely praised. While teaching drawing and painting as an Associate Professor of Fine Art at Boston’s Emmanuel College, Jacques appeared in more than 40 one-man exhibitions and has been represented in more than 125 national art shows. His work appears among important permanent collections in museums such as Washington, D.C.’s Museum of American Art and The Smithsonian’s National Collection, Virginia’s Chrysler Museum and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

In 1980, ABT Books of Cambridge, Massachusetts, published his Images of Age. Nominated for the American Book Award for Original Art, the volume is an unusual collection of Goya-quality drawings, which capture the solitude of aging among the forgotten elderly in New England nursing homes.

Jacques: Being an artist requires more than merely being a committed observer. It requires an ability to record the feelings that image awakens.

The artist, currently an Associate Professor of Fine Art at the Laguna College of Art & Design, resides in Laguna Beach with his wife, Karen. Here he feels the deep and provocative effects of living by the edge of the sea.

Jacques: Life at the California Riviera is visually stimulating. The coast is full of penetrating contrasts: light, color and proportional relationships. They each affect my art.

Michael’s work appears in art galleries on both coasts. In summer, he exhibits at the historic Laguna Beach Festival of Arts.