MY STORY
My name is a Jen and I am a Watercolour Artist based in Adelaide, Australia.
My passion is to create conceptual watercolour paintings and youtube videos of my painting process. I am forever trying to learn and grow as an artist, trying to experiment and find out who I am and what I want my art to communicate.
Each painting contains a very personal message, describing my fears, struggles, hopes, and dreams.
The goal of my paintings is to take an honest look at myself and to analytically dissect my presumptions, beliefs, and thoughts. By visually expressing these, my hope is to find inner peace and self acceptance, to let go and become the truest version of myself.
In sharing my art, I hope that others can interpret their own meanings, and connect these to their own journeys and experiences.
Frequently asked Questions
Is art your full time job?
No, I would love to one day make it my full time job – I have some reservations, as I worry that becoming a professional artist will put a lot of pressure on my artwork, and I tend to create the best work when I can relax and put less pressure on myself. I am a hydrographic surveyor by day, which is basically seabed mapping offshore.
If not, are you working to make that possible?
Yes, this year I am making it my mission to start trying to put my artwork out there – approach galleries, cafes, wineries, and events.
Do you paint every day?
I try and do something artistic every day, and I try to split my time between evenly between sketching, doing the proko anatomy course, doing figure drawing using croquis café, painting, and video editing. However once I start a painting, I tend to get consumed with this until it is finished.
The only downside about my full time job is that it takes me away from art – last year I was offshore for 5 months of the year and when I’m away I do 12 hour days so it makes it very difficult to fit in art time.
Where do you get your inspiration?
For visual references I look Instagram and pinterest – I love looking at my favourite artists and seeing what they are up to. I save a folder for these inspirations, and then review what visual elements am I drawn to and try and incorporate this into my work.
In looking at my saved Instagram posts and pinterest boards, you will directly see that my style is a Frankenstein creation of all these. There is this amazing video called ‘How to be creative: steal like Tarantino’ that really resonates with me, and really drives home the Austin Kleon quote ‘A bad artist steals from one source, a great artist steals from many sources’ – so don’t be afraid to steal!
Who are your favourite artists?
I’m really into science fiction surreal artwork at the moment, below are some artists that I’m loving on Instagram:
Victor Mosquera https://www.instagram.com/victormosquera/
Stuart Lippincott https://www.instagram.com/stuz0r/
Ian Francis https://www.instagram.com/ianfrancisart/
Pascal Blanché https://www.instagram.com/pascalblanche/
James Bullough https://www.instagram.com/james_bullough/
Are you on Skillshare?
No, but would love to one day create a watercolour class on there! I’d also like to sign up and start learning to but haven’t gotten around to it
What's your favourite thing to paint?
Portraits and figures. I started off just exclusively painting portraits, just copying photos exactly as I saw them but now I’m trying to make more meaningful work that portrays some kind of emotion or idea, and not getting too fixated on trying to replicate a photo exactly.