AWARD-winning artist Wendy Jackson is a native of South Carolina, though she now lives in Georgia. Her interest in art began at a young age when she was first asked to sketch the commonplace objects around her in school art class. Since then her style has turned more abstract; she never hesitates to indulge in the boldness of color and depict the day-to-day ups and downs of life.

Jackson says, “I like combining colors to tell a story, but the brightness, design, the way the paint ends up on the canvas is always a surprise.” As is the way her audience views her paintings. “Most of all I want the paintings to bring people joy,” she says, but as to what they see within her thick brushstrokes, that varies. “I’ve had people tell me, ‘Wow, I saw an angel, a bird, a burning bush—it speaks to people, and that allows me to know that everything I put onto the canvas I’m sharing from my heart.”

What’s her favorite piece? “Definitely Transition,” she says. And not only because it won her the BoldBrush for Abstract Award by FASO. It reminds her of what’s occurring in her life currently, as she transitions from one phase of life to the next in her endeavor as a full-time artist.