All artwork & images © Jen Mickelborough

About the Artist

Wonderings

The beautiful, rich pieces that Jen produces are inspired by her deep spiritual relationship with colour and the beauty that she finds - and seeks - in the world around her.

Items of beauty - leaves, pebbles, fabric, clippings - spark her imagination and like a magpie she hoards and collects these items to be treasured and used judiciously in her work which is multi-media and multi-layered.

She has a profound, emotional and philosophical relationship with colour.  She intimately explores different palettes which she uses to express and symbolize her spirituality. 

Her work then is a meditation on the glory that she sees in the world - be it literal natural splendor or the joy and tenderness found in people and relationships.  Her work is layered, sparkly, full of wonder and colour, and echoes the different threads and elements that weave together in life. Her deep and optimistic faith in God as redeemer and bringer of life and light filters into to all her work, bringing shades of hope into even the heaviest pieces.

Wanderings

Jen was born in Yorkshire, UK, and then raised within the sight of the Welsh hills.  She later went back to Sheffield in West Yorkshire on the edge of the Peak District National Park, where she spent much of her free time climbing and hiking through the beautiful, wild and rugged landscape. In 2005 she moved to New Zealand with her husband Fran where they lived in Queenstown in the heart of the Southern Alps.  Early 2008 saw Jen and Fran move to Austin, Texas, where Jen completed a three month residency at The Bloom House. Since then they have been spending time between New Zealand, Europe and the USA and are currently based in Austin, Texas, until April 2010.