Local artist explores vulnerability and self-discovery with new exhibition

Friday 08 March 2024

An artist and therapeutic arts practitioner is exposing “very vulnerable parts” of herself this weekend has shared how being “the gloriously neglected fourth child” led her to explore her creative energy.

Wendy Jenkins’ paintings are being shown at ArtHouse Jersey’ HQ at Greve de Lecq Barracks this weekend (Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 March) along with work from Christine Pemberton as part of their Pop Up Series.

"I've had to overcome a heap of self-doubt"

A self-taught painter, Wendy is also a therapeutic arts practitioner with local charity Kairos Arts which offers therapeutic arts programmes and workshops to vulnerable people in the island. Her inkling for creativity started in her childhood, when she would let her imagination run free in many forms.

"I was the gloriously neglected fourth child so free to explore my impulse to create: art, writing and performing comedy sketches, singing, dancing and pantomime all featured heavily in my formative years," she explained. 

Pictured: Wendy Jenkins' work explores both the light and shade of life.

"Much of this creative energy lay gently bubbling away in the background for many years, but it was always calling me back, whenever I took the time to listen. I've had to overcome a heap of self-doubt and negative self-talk to carve out the creative life I have now. Reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way was a life-changer for me."

"Art has an extraordinary way of helping people to flourish"

Having experienced the "healing power of the creative arts" for herself, Wendy says it has been an immense privilege to journey with individuals and groups over the years with Kairos Arts, "witnessing many grow in self-confidence, find solutions to problems, connect with others and so much more".

"Art has an extraordinary way of helping people to flourish and express themselves," she said.

"From something as simple as listening to a paintbrush pulling paint across the page, to exploring deeply buried emotions through mark making, art can support good mental health and wellbeing.

"Encouraging others to unlock their innate creative potential is a personal passion and I regularly run courses to help people 'Create with Confidence'.

"I'm now at a stage in life where I am specifically developing my own presence as a visual artist and I'm loving every moment."

"There's nowhere else I would rather be"

For the past 25 years, Wendy has been living in Jersey, where she says the sunshine and sea nourishes her soul.

"Living here is like a healthy marriage - it drives me crazy at times but there's nowhere else I would rather be," she said. "I've lived in six of the 12 parishes and often joke that it's my ambition to live in every parish before I die!"

It's also in Jersey that she has meant one of the biggest influences of her creative journey, local landscape painter David Henley, whom she describes as Jersey's "best kept secret".

"I am privileged to call him a dear friend; he has helped me so much to develop my art practice," Wendy said.

"He will be cross with me for saying this but when I am with him, I do feel like I am in the presence of greatness. And by the way, if you don't own a David Henley original, then go and see him in his studio at Holme Grown and treat yourself - your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be forever grateful to you."

To stimulate her creativity, Wendy also collects inspirational creative quotes which she keeps in a book. One of her favourites is by Clarissa Pinkola Estés from 'Women Who Run with the Wolves' and says: "Insist on quality creative life. Let neither your own complexes, your culture, intellectual detritus, nor any high-sounding, aristocratic, pedagogical, or political la-la steal it away from you."

"Whilst life can be full of wonderful things, the dark and tragic cannot be escaped"

In the Pop Up, Wendy will be sharing work that is "autobiographical and gravitates to abstraction".

"The work exposes very vulnerable parts of me," she said. "My inspiration has been a biblical poem entitled, 'A Time for Everything' which describes different seasons in our lives, (eg 'a time to weep, a time to laugh/a time to mourn, and a time to dance.')

"The poem begins with birth and death - the boundaries of life - and goes on to explore the unavoidable fact that whilst life can be full of wonderful things, the dark and the tragic cannot be escaped. This was fertile ground to examine events in my own life where joys and sorrows, sitting hand in hand, have been a constant."