Watercolor artist Jennifer Berlin recalls that her artistic journey began when one of her schoolteachers took the class out to paint on the marshes of Long Island where she grew up, and the introduction marked the beginning of a lifelong passion.
“I guess I’ve always liked art but never really studied it per se. I had my first one-woman show when I was in the eighth grade,” she recalls.
And, while her interest in art continued, Berlin majored in English in college and went on to work in the National Teacher Corps, a program designed to improve elementary and secondary teaching in low-income areas.
But then while in graduate school, she took a stained-glass class and liked it so much that she moved to San Francisco to try her hand at making a living from it. She created stained-glass pieces for some 10 years until the process began to bother her hands, and she began transitioning back to watercolors.
She also realized she would be better off choosing something else to earn money while continuing her artwork as a hobby.
“I discovered that the art that I really loved wasn’t the stuff people bought. Your soul comes out in your work,” shares Berlin. She explains that while buyers wanted to purchase her works, she wasn’t finding any joy in mass-producing them.
After Berlin moved back East, she began working in research for the New York Historical Society. One particularly memorable project came in 1976 when she worked with the Society of Illustrators on their book “200 Years of American Illustration,” helping to organize the paintings and write the biographies.
That led to a job working for Random House, which she called “an incredible experience.”
Over the next 40 years, Berlin primarily painted and sketched in journals, until she retired and moved to Vero Beach about 11 years ago.
“I wasn’t sure how I would take retirement; whether I would like it or not. But I had so many interests that I had no problem. I went back to doing all the things that I loved,” shares Berlin.
Embracing her retirement with enthusiasm, she soon began taking classes at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.
“I was just soaking them up. I just loved it,” recalls Berlin, who also joined the Vero Beach Art Club and began to show her work.
“I got a lot of reinforcement to continue. I loved painting, taking classes, showing my work and just getting involved in all the aspects of it. Vero Beach is such a nurturing community for artists,” says Berlin.
She believes that one reason for her choice of watercolor as a favored medium is linked to her passion for water.
“I love that it’s simple, and I don’t have control. I have to let the water flow, and I have to be patient,” Berlin says.
She adds that needing to wait until the paint dries before making changes forces her to be an iterative painter, utilizing multiple steps that bring her closer to the finished product.
“I do a little bit, and then I stop. I take pictures of it in between. If my eye stops on something, I know there’s a problem with that spot. Then I’ll do a little bit more, and then I’ll stop. I look at my stuff more than I paint it.”
As an example, she references a red wolf she’s painting and says, “If I don’t get the eyes right, then I’ve screwed it up.”
In the past, Berlin says she tried oils and acrylics, but those mediums allow artists to rework pieces over and over.
“With watercolor, you can’t do that. It either succeeds or it’s not as great as I like it, and it ends up in a box,” Berlin says, admitting that she’s got boxes of paintings that didn’t quite make the cut.
Although master painters such as William Turner, Henri Matisse and Paul Klee have provided inspiration, she admits that she has an eclectic eye.
“I guess I’m just curious about life in general. I’m sort of a Buddhist in my philosophy of life and try to be in the moment. Live each day that way.”
During COVID, Berlin volunteered to create paintings for the nonprofit H.A.L.O. No-Kill Rescue, and that got her interested in painting endangered animals.
Berlin says her greatest challenges are capturing minute details, such as the textures in an animal’s fur, the intricacies of a person’s face, or the delicate petals of a flower.
She considers herself to be a less-is-more, high-key artist, utilizing colors on the lighter end of the value scale, and she lays out a plan before she actually begins painting.
“First, I do a sketch to get an idea of what I want to do. Then I pick out my colors and do a small painting. I usually only work with three colors: blue, yellow and red. Those are my primaries. I can make every color of the rainbow from those three colors. It brings harmony to my work,” she explains.
“It keeps my paintings together. I try to be very simplistic. I’m still evolving; I see myself as a beginner. I try to capture beauty, to evoke a sense of joy.”
To anyone on the fence about deciding whether to pick up a paintbrush, Berlin says to go for it.
“It’s only paper and water and some color. Just take that brush, throw a lot of paint on it, and see where it goes.”
As a member of the Vero Beach Art Club, Berlin has participated in many shows and her work can be viewed on the club’s Artist’s Gallery. She has won awards at the Emerson Center and the A.E. Backus Museum, and her work is regularly displayed at locations around town through the Cultural Council’s Art in Public Places program.
