As 2012 artist in residence of White Oak Conservation Center, Nadine Terk creates portraits of
some of the earth's most endangered species. Many of these images are gilded using a technique she learned while living in
Japan and play upon both the representational and the iconic. Her process begins by careful observation of each animal and
detailed charcoal studies completed on site. Her gilded portraits of the animals, which she creates in her Jacksonville studio,
are a response to the mounted trophy head, a practice that has contributed to the demise of many of these species.
"At White Oak, I have a persistent feeling of participating in something much greater than myself,"
says Terk. "While I paint, I am aware that I am creating images for posterity. As these creatures disappear, all that
we will have left are visual images. Future generations will look at these images as we do the cave paintings of Lascaux or
Chauvet and wonder…. What were we thinking?"
Nadine Terk received her M.A. in Art History
and Archeology at Columbia University, NY and was an Adjunct Professor of Art and Art History at Flagler College, University
of North Florida, and Florida State College of Jacksonville. Terk held the position of Curator of the Jacksonville Museum
of Modern Art before transitioning to a career in art in 1998. She was formally trained in classical realism at The Art Students
League in New York and by one of the world's preeminent portrait painters, Nelson Shanks, at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia.
Terk exhibits her work both locally and abroad.