Keith Jacobshagen

Artist Biography

Keith Jacobshagen's artistic practice merges plen air—the act of painting out-of-doors—with more structured studio painting. Most of the artworks he completes in the field are studies or sketches in graphite, charcoal, pastels, watercolor, or oil on paper and are smaller in scale. Working near his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, Jacobshagen carefully logs the specific location, date, weather, and other descriptive details for each sketch. Occasionally, he works these notes into the sketches themselves, as seen here in the lower right-hand corner of Six O'clock News, Farm Lights in late November 1993 - Second Study. Over the course of the 1990s, the established morning and evening news cycle increased in sensational news reporting on events such as the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinksy scandal and the O.J. Simspon trial, which resulted in a 24-hour news cycle. Some news channels emerged in this new media landscape to fill the demand for round the clock news reporting and analysis, forever changing the way people consumed news.