St. Augustine artist Jenna Alexander finds inspiration in her family, friends and even along the quiet streets of the Oldest City.
By Samantha Stephenson
St. Augustine artist Jenna Alexander opened her first studio almost ten years ago. In addition to painting and drawing, she enjoys photography. “I’ve been a photographer at heart since I got my first camera at age 10,” Alexander says. Although she took a few film classes while working an old 9 to 5 job, she didn’t start doing wedding photography until she was 23. “My friend asked me to shoot her wedding. I told her ‘no’ but she insisted. So, I shot her wedding and absolutely loved it. Before I knew it, I had seven weddings booked through that first job.”
The income from her side hustle (photography weddings and family portraits) quickly matched her full-time job’s salary and she felt confident enough to quit the job and move to St. Augustine to pursue artistic endeavors full-time. Since then, she has photographed over 100 weddings. However, times change and she had to retire from that creative avenue in order to attend her children’s sporting events. Though, she still offers family photo sessions. “I am grateful to have photography because it provided a stable income that could support my painting passion,” she says.
Alexander’s new gallery show, Modern Summer, includes large-scale figurative studies and fruit still-lives. It opens to the public on Wednesday, May 3, 6-9 pm, at her studio, 73 San Marco Ave. The collection was inspired by the movie The Endless Summer, which Alexander watched when she was thirteen years old. She had just moved from Kansas to Florida and become friends with a group of local of surfers. “I was intrigued by the culture and lifestyle, because it was very different for me, coming from a landlocked way of living,” she says.
“For the Modern Summer Series, I want people to look at a painting and imagine them in a summer scene—relaxing, refreshing, calm, joyful, and cheerfulness. Whether it’s reading a book by the pool, sipping an icy beverage on a hot afternoon, grabbing a board to catch waves, or biting into a slice of cantaloupe. I want the viewer to feel a sense of nostalgia, maybe on their childhood, or maybe a sense of motivation to create a space in their lives to slow down and notice the in-between moments.”
As a homeschooled student until the 4th grade, Alexander experienced art projects as part of her curriculum (designed by her mother) from a very early age. “I remember drawing from a reference that was turned upside down when I was seven. I couldn’t believe the results when I turned my drawing right side up, and it became recognizable. That was a big AHA! moment for me, that our brain wants to draw what it thinks it sees, but you have to train your eye to tell your brain what it really looks like,” she recalls. From elementary school through high school, she was heavily involved in both art camps and art clubs. As a state award winner, she dreamed of painting for a living, but she was unsure of how or what it would look like.
The young artist went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus on painting from Maryville College in Tennessee. However, that wasn’t always her path, as she first majored in psychology and minored in art in hopes of becoming an art therapist. It was her professors’ advice that she followed—despite her dad’s encouragement to attend medical school. Her oil painter professor, Carl Gombet, told Alexander, “if it’s your passion, you should follow it.” And she did.
Gombert became her biggest influence in college, and she was able to work with him on a few independent studies where she developed some important skills. “His work was similar to Chuck Close’s hyper-realistic large-scale portraits,” Alexander says. Among the artists who inspire her today are Wayne Thiebaud and Kehinde Wiley. In her first encounter with Wayne Thiebaud’s art, she was captivated by his use of ultramarine blues in his shadows and cadmium red pops. “The way he captures a moment, is very simple. The background is minimal and the focus is on the person. The composition keeps bringing your eye back to the bright colors he uses for shadows and highlights that you wouldn’t normally expect to see in a portrait,” she explains.
After college, Alexander taught at an orphanage in Tanzania for a year and was honored to work at the home office for two years after that as the creative assistant. In that job, she met her husband and moved to St. Augustine, where she met jewelry designer Laurel Baker, who let her hang a few paintings on her art walks. A little less than a year later, Baker asked Alexander to join her in opening a shop. The newcomer had no business plan, a baby on the way, and just moved to the area, but she had some money saved up to get the project started. As a result of her husband’s encouragement, she went for it and has never looked back.
“I like the unexpected,” she says. “I like showing viewers all the beautiful colors that come out of something ordinary that maybe they hadn’t seen before.” In her paintings, she uses a number of brush strokes of vibrant colors to create an impressionistic rendition of an object or individual. “Why make it look realistic when you can make it more interesting? That’s why I use saturated hues.”
In all aspects of her life, her family is her greatest inspiration. Though she became a business owner and a mother in the same year, she was not forced to choose between them. For example, her husband is a math specialist at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. So, Jenna decided to only work during school hours, making sure her primary focus was on being a wife and mother. “We use different parts of our brains but we complement each other nicely. He’s always been supportive of my career as an artist, including providing a consistent income and benefits in order for me to pursue my big dreams,” she says.
She was inspired to create one of her most popular series, the “Flower Map of the United States,” while driving back from Maine. Because her husband is off during the summer, she and her family take trips to a variety of places. When she stopped at a park to have a picnic, she reflected on the number of flowers she noticed in each state, and from there, her idea was born.
The artist says inspiration comes from the life around her: the fleck of light creating an interesting shape on a leaf, the essence she tries to capture from her kids, and her town. “I constantly feel like I’m riding my bike through a painting. A morning spent painting is my favorite kind of day. It’s in my being to create. I’m not sure why I am so drawn to it, my entire life I have been, but I am so grateful to have it in my life.”
More at www.jenna-alexander.com and follow along on social media @jennaalexanderstudio
