Theme GARDEN has in the creation of Virge Jõekalda an important and a kind of mystical position. The artist returns to her garden again and again, as if wishing to record every single feeling and thought from there, every single movement of a haulm or blossoming of a flower there in an increasingly perfected manner.

The artist also walks along her garden paths in the exhibition hall of the SEB Ühispank Gallery, gathering the pictures under the expected title – “Paradise garden”, continuing to give meaning to her earlier series („Minu aed“ („My garden“), „Metsik aed“ („Wild garden“), „Salaaed“ („Secret garden“), „Tuuline aed“ („Windy garden“), „Õitseng“ („Flourishing“), „Lõõm“ („Blaze“)).

In the works by Virge Jõekalda can be found blossoming, joy of being and living - the joy of the moment. This is also emphasized by the manner of presentation of her works in the exhibition hall. Her pictures are hanging on the walls as loose leaves, being naked and selfless. The artist has not wanted to trammel them into frames. Her graphical sheets are looking at the general public, being direct and clean, they value expressively not in the first range their outer, but inner energy.

The epithet feminine is often the first relation while talking about Virge Jõekalda.

Her sensitive and nuance-abundant dry point technique enables to record on a sheet of paper thin, tenderly subtle lines – but not only them. The artist herself has once said that in the first range she loves such pictures, the line of which is quite unnoticeable; from this also emerge the diversity, discreet line, softness and warmth of the image. She can introduce into her creation everything pristinely characteristic to womanliness: tenderness, fragility, but also security through the red-warm colours of love.

Virge Jõekalda’s use of colours is always obvious and recognizable. After the beginning of the 1990ies, when was revived the black-and-white intaglio technique, the artist has been moving during the recent years convincingly towards glowing red, towards the red colour, possessing sporadically extreme and burning energy, as if wishing to light the viewer up, kindle him, grasp him into the sensual whirl of emotion through her art. The depth of red is emphasized by black, at the same time framing, limiting, restraining it.

The dry point technique, to which Jõekalda has remained reasonably true in her creation, gives her sufficient freedom to act upon the accomplishment of her ideals. Dry point enables independent printing, careless following of the creative process, making of interim proofs, changing of colours, bringing to the fore one detail, printing over and on everything. By playing with a feminine whim the artist can handle the proofs boldly and violate the unwritten rules impetuously. Also the work can be let to “breathe”, to put it aside for some time in order to approach it after some time with new feelings. This is a process, a line of repetitions, variations of the main theme, from which finally emerges an emotional integer – a line of pictures, where a single work is not so very important anymore. Important is the whole idea – “Paradiisiaed” – full of ideal images and senses of perfection