Alma means soul in Portuguese and it is the title of an ongoing body of work from Jacqueline de Montaigne that began in January 2020. Alma is made up of watercolours, oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and paper with the artists signature precious metal circles. 

Fascinated with nature, biology and scientific illustration from a young age, it was with old books on these subjects that Jacqueline taught herself to draw which began when she was around 4.  Frequently exploring these themes in her practice, Jacqueline uses nature as a form of refuge often bringing it into her work as a contrasting meditative calm to often tumultuous subjects or emotions portrayed in her figurative pieces. In this series nature replaces her subjects as a shadow, a parallel soul at complete peace where people and nature become one.