Christopher Jennings is a self-taught artist . He has been creating artworks for over 40 years. He can’t remember a time when he didn’t have a pencil, pen or paintbrush in his hand.
He began his artistic career as a cartoonist and caricaturist, and in these fields he was widely published in Australia, as well as in England and France.
Over the years he has participated in a number of group and community shows, and he has held two solo exhibitions. Mostly his work has found an audience through word of mouth and through his website. His paintings are included in private collections in Australia and Europe.
Mostly, the inspiration for Chris’ work comes from the Australian landscape. Not the dry ochre-toned vistas of the never-never – though he has painted those, too – but from the blue-green forests and wheaten plains of south-eastern Australia.
These are not necessarily pretty or pristine landscapes (are there any left?), but are landscapes that often carry the stamp of humankind: fences, cleared land, grazing sheep and cattle, the incursions of gorse and cypress, gravel and mud tracks.
But in these often small-scale ruminations, there is still a quiet beauty. At once both inviting and foreboding. These are pictures to contemplate and enjoy for a long time.