We’re excited to step into the studio with Jenny Hutchinson (who you may recognize from her role at The Hyde Collection) to chat about her amazing contemporary art. She shares how she got started, what inspires her creative process, and a bit about renovating an old barn on their city property to serve as her studio!
On Beginnings
My mom says my first friend was my crayon box and that is about what I remember too. From an incredibly young age, I loved to color. You would often find me spending time head down, lost in a coloring book or later creating my own images. I remember getting in trouble once because I doodled on someone’s scrap paper in kindergarten. I was trying out a color before using it on my coloring page. I remember feeling so ashamed, but now I think - what an artistic thing to do.
Growing up I was the artsy kid, but I was also very athletic which was quite a unique combination. I gravitated to both these activities because it was a way for me to shine without having to speak and it was the only way I was comfortable being front and center. Art and athletics provided me with a voice, and it was where I had the most courage and confidence to be myself.
Chrysanthemum • Courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
It took me a long time to learn what a career in the arts looked like. It really did not come into full focus until I was working. It sounds wishy washy but even though I did not know what career I would specifically pursue, from a young age I was very driven and focused on succeeding in the arts.
One thing that I think is very important for students pursuing creative careers to know is it’s okay not to know, because if you’re open to new possibilities and trying new things, you will have more opportunities. Jobs in the art field are not many, so I like to tell students to think of your future arts career as a meandering river not a highway.
On Inspiration
I have many artistic muses and heroes, but I have always been a bit on my own course. Something inside me just cannot get on board with doing something because someone else is doing it and I am most happy when I follow wherever my intuition leads me. My artistic process is a blend of creating from observation and utilizing abstraction.
Tree Symphony Inspiration • Courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
I am inspired most by what it is in front of me. I choose subjects I find interesting and then once I have created the blueprint (initial drawing) then I move into abstraction. One choice (use of color, line, shape, or texture) inspires my next move. Therefore, I often compare my artistic process to alchemy. I create something from all these disparate elements and using intuition as my guide the materials combine to become something else.
I do not consider my work to be incredibly original when considering it in a macro context of the art world. I think being driven to do something no one has done before is a bit of a fallacy these days, everything truly has been done and it is also okay that it has because no one is you. My work is unique because I am comfortable with having the courage to do what my inner voice is saying I need to do. I feel my most successful works are my most honest works.
Tree Symphony • Courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
I tend to be drawn to plants, people, and landscape. All subjects provide a platform for me to transform them into something other. I do not usually have a vision of the final destination this transformation takes, but it unfolds as I make decisions about the design of the artwork. My work whether of a plant, person, or landscape tends to have bright colors and I often introduce linear abstraction or texture. Both embed the subject with a certain energy that I am drawn to exploring. It is a bit metaphysical - I do believe in the energy of things, and I think that is why it finds a way into my artwork. This energy I am portraying has no scientific or spiritual basis, it is very rooted in what is or what exists in that moment.
On Motivation
My interest can wane depending on the task - of course creating something the first time is my favorite but there are many aspects of my work that need to be repetitive in order for it to evolve or for me to build something.
One of the things I have learned most from teaching is that you must put things down sometimes to move forward, or often sometimes the best thing you can do is start over. That can be so hard to do! Artists by nature are such deep thinkers and a bit obsessive, which is why we can work so long on things. I have learned to recognize when I am not feeling something, that is time to make a shift. I walk away from it for a bit or even just decide it is not working and start over, and I am always better for it.
I always say art is a process in which you learn a lot about yourself, your strengths, and the things you need to work on. That is why it can be so therapeutic.
Lilium • Courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
On the Creative Process
I sketch out things, but only to work them to a finish. I do not doodle, I usually do not do thumbnail sketches, I create an under drawing or painting then work it to a finish. I did not start out that way, it was something I grew into as I became more specialized and skilled.
I create a finished drawing, then I either build upon the drawing adding color and other materials or I recreate it on another surface. The recreation is usually because I am changing the scale or material it will be created in. From the initial drawing things become completely transformed, I invent new colors, add layers, cut out pieces of the composition, add or collage pieces to the composition. I also tend to use materials that are hard to work with, like paper. Paper is not the most durable or useful material to work in a sculptural process. Oil paint is also not extremely versatile, but both are my favorite and I use them in ways that could potentially cause a work to be compromised so I have to be very careful so that the structure does not become compromised.
Above: Peony in process and complete • Images courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
Some Advice for Artists…
Keep the work personal but once it is made, take the personal out of it or understand that your feelings about a work are yours and no one can take that away from you. Your work has value because it has value to you, others will develop their own relationship and opinions of your work no matter what you do. You can only control what you can control - what you can control is the relationship you have with your art so focus on that and let the rest happen. Be open, resilient, and constructive.
On Renovating a Barn into a Studio
We have been renovating the bottom floor of the barn on our property to become a woodshop and art studio with future plans to eventually move the art studio upstairs. What used to be one large area with horse stalls and no windows now has a large enclosed back room with windows (that will be the art studio) and the front room will be the woodshop and stairs to the eventual upstairs. The area that will first be the art studio I am hoping can become a future workshop space to host classes and/or serve as gallery space. We are on target to have my studio ready for winter but like all renovations it has certainly been full of surprises!
Barn and stable, before • Courtesy of Jenny Hutchinson
Barnwood doors and accent wall, mid-renovation
