For collaboration and commission enquiries, please contact Jeremy at
jherndl@gmail.com
A client in London Ontario was having a new home built on Georgian Bay by the builder, Verge, and incorporated a space for a yet unmade painting by me into the design of the bar area. The client asked for a painting that would measure 96x60 inches and after several conversations we agreed that I should travel to Georgian Bay to make the work.
I arrived with my custom field easel and rental van and over the first several days, I explored the area to find inspiration for their painting. Knowing they appreciated some of my edgier work, I created three to scale watercolours of options; 1, the giant oak tree overlooking Tom Thomson’s grave, 2, a half dead tree on the shore of the lake and 3, the clients house under construction. The clients decided on the third option and for the next few weeks I worked among the other trades on the construction site creating a painting that documents this extraordinary house when it was under construction. This was an extraordinary opportunity and I am grateful for the trust of the client.
View Through the House, 2023
Old Orchard, Parc Cristalina, 2024
I was asked by the President of Parc Residences, a group of high end seniors living complexes based in British Columbia, to create a public art piece for the new development in Kelowna, BC. Because the name of the building would be Cristalina (a cherry variety developed in Kelowna) I chose to focus on the history of agriculture and orchards in the area for the theme of the artwork. I asked the owners of Twin Oaks Organic Farm in the Mission area if I could paint in their cherry orchard and they kindly agreed.
Over the following 18 months I would return to the orchard, sometimes camping among the cherry trees and produced 10 paintings (two 54x48 inch and eight 24x22 inch) of elderly yet productive cherry trees in different seasons. These plein air paintings culminated in a diptych called, Old Orchard, measuring 12x5 feet which was digitally reproduced to clad the exterior of the building, magnifying the texture of linen and brush strokes.
I am grateful to Parc Residences for this incredible opportunity and for the trust they had in me to make this wonderful artwork outside the building and for including the entire suite of orchard paintings inside the building.
Bank of Montreal,
Twilight in the Park
In Collaboration with STEPS Public Art, I was invited to make a painting for the new Bank of Montreal branch at King George Hub in Surrey, BC. In close consultation with STEPS and the client, we went from concept to mock-up and then final painting which measured 3x5 feet from which a large image file was created and a final vinyl print measuring 11x19 feet was installed in the branch. My thanks to STEPS and the Bank of Montreal for the project.
Ypres Chestnut. Oil on canvas. 70x60 cm. Menin Gate, Ypres.
May 8-10, 2023.
Every tree in Ypres was blown to bits in World War One. If there were any survivors, their wood was salvaged for fuel. The Ypres Chestnut (planted in 1860) was just a shattered stump at the end of the war but several sprigs emerged and it lives to this day. What this tree must have been witness to?
Commissioned by Royal Roads University as part of the research for a documentary entitled, Ways that we Remember War.
Painted at the site of the site of the Second Battle of Ypres, April 22 to May 25, 1915, and the first large-scale chlorine gas attack by the Germans, which created a gap in the Allied lines. The Woods as they were were destroyed and now over a century later the sand of trees marks the site of so much death and suffering. Commissioned by Royal Roads University as part of the research for a documentary entitled, Ways that we Remember War. Thank you to Professor, Geoffrey Bird, at Royal Roads University for his vision, open mindedness and trust for this project.
Kitchener’s Wood. Oil on canvas. 60x70 cm. Ypres, Belgium.
May 5/6 2023.
Medicine Tree. Oil on linen.
54x48 inches. 2023. Painted at Pkols, in Victoria, BC.
This was a special commissioned project. As many of you know, I often paint portraits of trees. A while ago I was asked by the Friends of Carmanah-Walbran to paint a Yew Tree to raise awareness of this fascinating tree.
Shortly after that a woman, who has collected my work, commissioned me to paint a Yew Tree. The woman had been contending with cancer for years and taxol derived from the Yew Tree has been an important part of her treatment. She is also a Forest Defender of incredible conviction and courage.. As I was working on this painting, I was finishing, Finding the Mother Tree by @drsuzannesimard who also was treated with taxol.
I made this painting on PKOLS, otherwise known as Mount Douglas, in Victoria, BC, W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples land.
Old Friend, Oak. Oil on canvas. 54x48 inches. May, 2022.
I have returned to paint this Old Oak many times over the years. A prospective collector came to my studio and asked about the most recent painting I had made of this tree but it was already spoken for and would soon be hanging on a wall in Zurich. I suggested that I could return to that meadow in the Spring and make another portrait of the tree and he agreed. We discussed the dimensions and the price and many months later, I retuned to this Garry Oak Meadow in Uplands Park, in Oak Bay, BC and spent several days in changing weather conditions including high winds and a bit of rain and made this painting. I appreciated the opportunity to return to this endangered meadow ecosystem in spring and I will return again and catch up on the conversation with this old friend.
Old Oak, Day into Night.
Oil on canvas. 66x48 inches. 2021.
A client bought a heritage house in Oak Bay, BC and on the property was this massive old Garry Oak. He knew about my ‘tree portraits’ and we discussed my day to night projects (where I paint the day and night into one picture) and asked me to make a painting of this impressive Oak. I spent eight days on this portrait and as I painted from day into the night I included the changing appearance and the arrival of the night time sky, stars and the moon.
When he saw the finished painting, he remarked that it reminded him of the American cinematic device called Nuit Americain.
View from the Cave
View from the Cave is a series of watercolours that are based on oil paintings I did on the Island of Gotland, Sweden in 2015. The original paintings were of the view from a Stone Age, cave dwelling and it led me to ponder this original view, a window to the world. I thought about the threshold between interior and exterior and also internal and external and the shape of the cave opening took the form of a portrait.
During the pandemic most of us stayed in, back to our respective caves and introspection. An art collector in Vancouver reached out to me and commissioned a watercolour based on the original oil painting, I made six versions and he bought them all. Thank you to David Allison Incorporated at Value Graphics for this project.