For the last decade, Jenna Kessler has been working as a farmer and illustrator, cultivating a relationship with the land and memorializing plants and landscapes in her paintings. She selects plant specimens to illustrate into botanical patterns, and loves depicting nature in all its forms and in every season.
She also splices poetry into her illustrated scenes, weaving lyrics and ideas into her illustrations, asking the viewer questions about human interactions with the earth.
In between growing food and plants and illustrating, she also carefully crafts songs that reflect her unique, artistic vision of the world and careful attention to detail. Her poetic new EP, A Still Life, is the culmination of these reflections in musical form. These piano-driven songs are written through the observation of a quiet moment, translating that feeling of stillness into melody and harmony. The intimate themes are decorated with surprise ragtime twists, staccato horn lines, soaring cello sections, and howling harmonies.
Jenna is currently available for fine art commissions; contact her if you have a image you’d like to see come to life through oil or watercolour. She is also available for illustration work.
Jenna also works with Garth Laidlaw in creating short animated videos. Her work with Garth often graphically animates issues surrounding food sustainability, a subject dear to her heart.
