Jenni Stringleman Artist Biography

After twenty years of working in graphic design and animation, Jenni Stringleman has returned to her first love - working in oils. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, she paints contemporary, bright expressionist florals, fresh, abstracted nudes, and portraits.

"For me, painting is an expression of joy. I simply love the act of applying oils to canvas, and this has led me to explore a heady mix of thick oils, semi-transparent washes of color, and high detail combined with gestural strokes."

Statement

Jenni's recent pieces focus on the figure drawn from life in charcoal, erased, rotated and attacked with brayers and solvents with slabs of flat color finally applied to obscure and reveal.

"I want to be trying new things, learning, stretching myself. Most people call me a colorist, and I do love color, it’s hugely instinctual for me, I feel what goes where and get great joy from the marks and drips and combinations. My first love in painting is the figure... life drawing, nudes, faces.

The nudes were put on the backburner for a while. The other galleries who approached me, came to me for my semi-abstracted florals, so that’s where most of my energy went. I painted a portrait of my daughter just for fun then ended up getting commissioned to paint other kids. I love the opportunity they afford me to sit down for once! I like being challenged to capture the real essence of this child, in a more classic way that will stand the test of time. They take ages, and they give me a break from the physical effort of the large pieces. I studied under Martin Campos, and he inspired me to combine my love of color and paint with my charcoal sketches of the figure. A new aspect to my work developed, and now I think of myself as working happily across these three strands: figures, florals, and abstracts."