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Jackie Henshall (B.A. Fine Art Painting,
Central College of Art and Design, London) exhibited for many years
as a landscape painter in East Anglia, painting the salt marshes of
Suffolk and Norfolk. Since moving to Wales in 1999 she has become a
digital and mixed media artist, using photography to gather the raw
materials for her designs and for the patterned papers she uses in her
collage work. As well as exhibiting locally (most recently one man shows at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Aberglasney, and Waunifor), Jackie has set up “Small Beauties” a successful international fine art business. Operating from an old renovated woolen mill in Carmarthenshire, she distributes her prints, greeting cards and papercraft products to over 450 galleries and shops throughout the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Her most recent project has been illustrating a new book of contemplations by Mark Ballabon, entitled “Why is the Human on Earth?” |
About her Work
For many years Jackie immersed herself in painting landscape believing that nature was more surprising and original in its arrangements than anything she herself could imagine. Now, as she turns her eye inwards she feels the hours she spent painting outdoors, under her fisherman’s umbrella, to be the best training she could have received and a great resource to now draw upon.Although her current work is abstract, the designs have been created out of the stuff of landscape, and are filled with images of the sky, leaves, trees, the sea, shells, feathers, flowers etc. all spun together with words, poems and prayers.
“I see myself today as a kind of visual storyteller for the inner life, spinning words and natural forms together into a geometry that describes some of the subtle processes involved in a human’s journey towards self knowledge. It’s an impossible task but quite thrilling just to try. “
Currently Jackie is engaged in putting together a book of meditations which includes both her personal comtemplations and mandala designs.