JENNY BERRY

I started out as an ad agency art director and that still informs my art. I love illustration and graphic design. I studied those things at school but concentrated on figure drawing and art history at college (Eastern Michigan University in the 80s and Portfolio Center, ATL in the 90s).

 

At that time painting was still very “abstract expressionist”, if anyone was painting at all. Warhol had declared painting dead and museums were showing cinderblock and neon installations. It was a difficult time to be a painter of realistic looking things. I told my teachers, "I want to learn to paint like the Masters". They told me, “Galleries don’t sell work like that, furniture stores do.”

 

In the the late 90s and early 2000s I was living in NYC and realism started popping up all over, it was making a resurgence. I was soon painting again, began freelancing at my job and by 2004 I was painting full time. I've never looked back, my personality is much more suited to long days/weeks standing quietly in front of a painting vs the crazy corporate world.

 

For 20 some years I've worked day by day in the studio and felt my confidence growing at the easel. That confidence led to relaxing my strokes and letting go of the "control" that was so important to me early on. It's been such a long process getting here but it feels like I'm finally fluent in some kind of language that's mine. So now I get up in the morning thinking about what to say with it and how best to say it.

 

I’ve been working full time as an artist since 2004 and teaching since 2013. I remember how eager I was to learn and how hard it was to get the information in a clear way. It was very frustrating and I never want my students to feel that way. If you are interested in learning, I teach two classes a week in oil painting techniques at the classroom space in our studio building and I'm working on online courses. For more info.

 

I live and work in Sarasota, FL where Thursdays - Saturdays (10-3) you'll find me in my public studio at Creative Liberties in downtown Sarasota. We are an open, working artists studio/gallery so stop by if you're in town. Check the schedule on our website/social media we often have events. 

 

Please contact me with any questions.

 

Thank you for your interest and your patronage, Jenny