I discovered the absolutely beautiful work of Shoalhaven-based nature artist Jess Hutchison last year.
My study thanks me for it; I have her fabulous 2023 calendar hanging just to my left and I love how it brings a little of the outside inside, but with the intensity turned up. My husband isn't quite as excited, though, as I've been eyeing off her breathtaking original works and we have exactly zero wall space left in our little cottage. Looks like we'll just have to extend the house then!
Jess was kind enough to chat to me about what inspires her, why she loves living on the South Coast and how she finally found her own unique style.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I actually grew up in the northern suburbs of Wollongong but moved to the Shoalhaven area with my husband around nine years ago. We now have two kids and a menagerie of pets and love living on the South Coast. This area is such a great place to raise a family, it’s a slower pace down here but we are spoilt for choice when it comes to exploring our beautiful outdoors.
We used to holiday down this way a lot and whenever we would drive past the rolling hills of Gerringong there was a feeling of coming “home”. We knew it was where we wanted to lay down our roots. I’m a bit of a gypsy at heart and we moved around a lot in our 20s – even interstate – so it has been nice to find somewhere that truly feels like the right fit for us.
I can't draw to save myself! Was art something that came naturally to you, or was it something you had to learn?
Believe it or not I am terrible at drawing myself! I am OK with sketching a basic outline but it isn’t until I have a paintbrush in my hand that I actually feel like an artist.
Growing up, I was surrounded by art every day. My mum Val was a folk art teacher and used to teach workshops at various folk art studios in the Illawarra, and also lessons from our home. She put me into lessons with another art teacher from the age of eight and this is where I learnt the very basics of painting. How to portray shadow and light, perspective and colour theory. I do feel that these lessons were really important in creating a foundation for me as an artist, and that knowledge is just second nature to me now.
Anyone who remembers folk art would recall the very controlled nature of that style of painting – you would paint within the lines on a traced design and each brush stroke was pre-planned and you would copy from a pattern. It has actually taken me a really long time to “unlearn” the rigidity of that painting style and I now enjoy being more experimental, merging realism with more quirky and loose brushstrokes.
While I love to create art from a reference image, it’s the little tweaks, the dripping paint/random colours and line-work that make it completely unique. I feel happy to finally have a painting style that is just “me” not a learnt one that I have studied.
What inspires you?
It’s the everyday kind of nature that inspires me. When we bought our first home it was a little weatherboard cottage surrounded by gum trees. I had never experienced living close to so much birdlife and suddenly we had a magpie family who would visit daily, kookaburras and cockatoos on our fence and king parrots in the tree next to the washing line.
I don’t know whether it was an age thing or this new way of literally living amongst the gum trees but I was so inspired and suddenly fascinated with the flora and fauna around me.
As I was a stay-at-home mum at the time, I had a lot of time to sit and soak up my surroundings. It inspired me to pull out the paintbrushes as I hadn’t painted for many years and I just itched to create nature-inspired artworks for my own home. I started to share my work on social media and the rest is history!
I am still pinching myself that I get to do this as a job now.
You can follow Jess Hutchison Art on Facebook and Instagram and find her prints, cards and wares online and also at The Collective Beat stores in Gerringong and Huskisson, and Co.LAB store in Berry.
Her next solo exhibition will be held in November at Fern Street Gallery
