Jennifer Austin

I am an emerging artist who was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. Art has always been my passion. Although I have never found myself in a position where I could focus on it full-time or make a career of
it, there have been various different stages in my life where I felt compelled to go back and immerse myself in the creative process, if and when I could find the time. In 2020, I decided I was ready to begin sharing my work with the public.

All of my current pieces are medium-to-larger scale drawings on paper using charcoal and erasure marks. I use powdered charcoal, vine charcoal, pressed charcoal, and charcoal pencils – as well as several types of erasers creating a variety of different marks on the paper.

Each drawing is autobiographical in that it represents a point in time where I was captivated by a place or object that I observed in nature. I take photographs as I explore the natural world then work directly from those photographs. Nature is therapeutic for me, and I am motivated by the feelings that surface when seeing these places and objects again, remembering how they moved me at the time I was there. I enjoy reflecting on the impact these scenes had on me as I dissect and capture every shadow, highlight, and detail, ultimately bringing the drawing to life.

I know that my subject matter is truly one point in time, never to be seen in that exact state again. Sadly, all of these places and objects will soon cease to exist. The scene or object I captured is a fleeting moment of beauty, a part of history by the time my drawing has been completed. My ultimate goal is to capture this ethereal beauty and allow it live on through my drawings while nature as we know it becomes a distant memory.