“When I’m painting on location, usually in the mountains, I can take a deep breath and listen to the environment around me. I can see the crispness of the colors, the softness or hard edges of mountain peaks, or changes of light and shadows. I paint what I see but feel it is more than just painting, I’m trying to capture the moment and why I was drawn to it.”
Jennifer was born in Portland, OR and moved to Colorado as a young child. She spent her childhood summers camping and hiking all over the United States with her family. It was Jennifer’s father, a plant pathologist with the US government, who first got Jennifer hooked on nature and landscapes.
Jennifer received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas in 1996. She was directed into the Graphic Design field and put down the canvas and paint for computers. After college, her first job was a graphic designer for a clothing company where she designed promotional materials, directed photo shoots, and designed catalogs. Her career took a different direction in 1999, when she quit her job and took a leap of faith to start her own faux painting business. She applied and painted custom wall finishes in private homes, including Italian inspired plasters and murals. To remain on the cutting edge of the faux painting market, Jennifer studied in Italy with a master faux finisher and muralist. Jennifer’s work was featured in several Kansas City home and garden magazines. Jennifer was the most sought after faux finisher in Kansas City. The experience in Italy sparked her desire to paint landscapes.
In 2005, her husband Roy was offered a job to relocate to Colorado. They made the difficult decision to shut down Jen’s business so they could be closer to the outdoor lifestyle that they loved. Jennifer and Roy reside in Lakewood, CO with their three boys Grant, Sean, and Mark. She has been balancing being a mother and a landscape painter for the last 10 years. She enjoys plein air painting and the challenge of capturing an ever changing and nuanced scene.
Jennifer describes her painting style as a combination of realism and impressionism. She focuses her landscapes and wildlife primarily of the Midwest and Northwestern states.