Linda Jacobus is a local oil painter. She's an oil painter with a show going on at Morso Wine Bar in Gig Harbor until April 24.

If you haven't checked out Morso before, it's a beautiful harborside restaurant with tasty food and an array of wines.

If you haven't checked out a wine bar before, you should - because everything is better when drunk.

And because I said so.

Linda Jacobus is originally from California, but has been in the Northwest since 2003. She paints in the style of classical realism, meaning her artwork centers around skill and beauty, and she has an insane eye for realistic details and is wicked talented. Jacobus's paintings capture a variety of subjects including flowers, still life, landscapes and people, but they all share her passion for light and an interesting interplay of shadows and highlights.

"I would consider myself a tonalist," says Jacobus. "I enjoy depicting the unique degrees of value. Most of all I love to capture the light that shines upon the subject and the shadows that bring forth the light."

What is perhaps most notable about Jacobus is she is self-taught. In 1992, after her sons were grown, she picked up a brush for the first time and guided herself to paint as part of a search to fill a long-time void in her life. With a background in science and criminology, research had always been one of her passions and she put it to use analyzing art books and pieces by master painters in museums to form a technique all her own.

"I love to research and there was just something missing in my life," she says. "I got into oil paintings and realized that's what it was. I researched it. I didn't want anyone telling me how to do it because I wanted to look at it from my own perspective."

As for how exactly she learned to capture such realistic images on her own, she offers, "I studied perspectives, but I think it's just really looking and seeing something for what it is."

This response caused a fairly strong Zen moment in your author. What exactly gives one person the ability to look at a subject, to copy delicate light refractions on glass, down to the smallest nuance and gives the next person the ability to draw crazy good stick figures is quite a mystery.

Jacobus explains by saying, "I owe my paintings to God. He's definitely my teacher and he's already created everything and I just copy his works."

You can find Linda Jacobus's art elsewhere around the area. She currently has works up at the Proctor Art Gallery in North Tacoma and the Ebb Tide Gallery in Gig Harbor.
And if you find yourself in need of a glass of wine and some artwork, Morso rotates artists into its gallery space (the banquet room) for periods of about one month. The restaurant also features musical performances and a full menu of tapas, entrees and more.

The paintings of Linda Jacobus

Through April 24
Morso Wine Bar
9014 Peacock Hill Ave. #100B, Gig Harbor
253.530.3463