Jen Orpin graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art.
In 2018 she appeared in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year where the judges chose her in their top three for the heat. In November 2019 she, with two other artists from Rogue co-ordinated a group show of 45 female artists from Rogue including invited guest artists from all over the UK. They co-curated this show with Ann Bukantas, head of fine art at the Walker Gallery Liverpool in the ground floor gallery at Rogue. This exhibition was created out of a need to shine a light on female artists often overlooked in the art world.
Jen has recently become an associate member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. (MAFA)
‘My current practice focuses on one of the fundamental elements of human relationships, connection. This connection can manifest itself emotionally, spiritually and physically. The latter requires us to come together, meet, see and touch each other. This cannot happen without one crucial act, the journey that takes us to them. This, in the most part is achieved by various means and modes of transport.
The one I focus on and have been investigating throughout my painting practice is the journey by car and the relationship we have with the motorway and its landmarks. These visual representations of everyday topographies and the framed view from the car make up and form the basis of memories and nostalgia. The importance of these external landscapes is often mirrored by the internal dialogue of the driver and passenger with the confinements of the car at times offering an intimate confessional space.
The mundanity of these every day actions often belies the truth of deep routed emotions that come with well-travelled routes to the people and places that mean the most to us. In my paintings I aim to portray this feeling, emotionalism is a key element in the success of each one and as a viewer you are forced to look down the road as its sole traveler and undertake each journey as your own. Each bridge or landmark acts as the sitter in the landscape’s portrait, confronting you head on, holding your gaze as your mind travels under and beyond its concrete confinements.’
In 2018 she appeared in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year where the judges chose her in their top three for the heat. In November 2019 she, with two other artists from Rogue co-ordinated a group show of 45 female artists from Rogue including invited guest artists from all over the UK. They co-curated this show with Ann Bukantas, head of fine art at the Walker Gallery Liverpool in the ground floor gallery at Rogue. This exhibition was created out of a need to shine a light on female artists often overlooked in the art world.
Jen has recently become an associate member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. (MAFA)
‘My current practice focuses on one of the fundamental elements of human relationships, connection. This connection can manifest itself emotionally, spiritually and physically. The latter requires us to come together, meet, see and touch each other. This cannot happen without one crucial act, the journey that takes us to them. This, in the most part is achieved by various means and modes of transport.
The one I focus on and have been investigating throughout my painting practice is the journey by car and the relationship we have with the motorway and its landmarks. These visual representations of everyday topographies and the framed view from the car make up and form the basis of memories and nostalgia. The importance of these external landscapes is often mirrored by the internal dialogue of the driver and passenger with the confinements of the car at times offering an intimate confessional space.
The mundanity of these every day actions often belies the truth of deep routed emotions that come with well-travelled routes to the people and places that mean the most to us. In my paintings I aim to portray this feeling, emotionalism is a key element in the success of each one and as a viewer you are forced to look down the road as its sole traveler and undertake each journey as your own. Each bridge or landmark acts as the sitter in the landscape’s portrait, confronting you head on, holding your gaze as your mind travels under and beyond its concrete confinements.’
