Nature, Linocut and the Art of Jenni Robson
- Karin Blak
- Jul 27
- 3 min read
For Jenni Robson, creativity has always been an adventure, one that has taken her from painting theatre scenery, model making and designing costumes to writing children’s books and discovering the unpredictable pleasures of reduction linocut printing.
Jenni works with watercolour and ink, but it is the printmaking technique she discovered around eighteen months ago that currently occupies much of her creative attention.
Reduction linocut involves repeatedly carving and printing from the same block to build an image in layers of colour. The process leaves little room for turning back, which is part of its appeal.
Jenni describes it as “exciting and unpredictable”, with each new project allowing her work to develop in new directions. Her love of colour and pattern combines with skills gathered throughout a varied career in the design industry. Her daily meditation practice keeps Jenni calm and focused, helping her visualise her next work of art.
Nature, wildlife, storytelling and quirky characters provide much of her inspiration.
These interests came together in her debut rhyming picture book, The Chestnut Tree, inspired by walks through Little Bowden Park. Publishing the book opened another chapter in Jenni’s creative life, taking her into schools and libraries to read to Reception and Key Stage One children, lead workshops and share her enthusiasm for trees and the natural world.
Her creative foundations were laid during a childhood spent in a small village in the South Oxfordshire countryside. A primary school that valued art and music helped sow the seeds, although her first paid commission was rather unusual: painting dolphins inside an empty swimming pool while still at secondary school.
After studying at Banbury School of Art, Jenni moved to Leicester to complete a degree in 3D Design. What followed was an extraordinarily varied career, including painting scenery at the Haymarket Theatre, producing displays for theme parks and shops, model making, graphic design, and designing scenery and costumes, including Star Wars and Mr Men characters.
Art has also shown Jenni how creativity can reach across language and cultural differences. While volunteering at a medical camp based in a school in Gujarat, India, she used art to communicate when words were unavailable. She remembers it as a humbling, life-changing experience. “I thought I was going there to help and yet I had gained a million times more,” she says.
Now working part-time at Market Harborough Building Society, Jenni continues developing her practice alongside her job. She has found Market Harborough an encouraging place in which to create, particularly valuing the way the community supports local celebrations, exhibitions and young people’s creativity.
Joining Creative Harborough and Harborough Artists Cluster has strengthened that sense of connection. Recent successes include exhibiting at the Leicester Open, taking part in HAC Open Studios and preparing for HAC Expo, Art Windows and Northants and Rutland Open Studios at Lamport Hall.
Her greatest practical wish is for affordable studio space, ideally within a creative hub in the town centre where artists could work, welcome visitors and offer workshops. For now, she prints and paints in a small room at home, where a beige carpet lives under constant threat from mysteriously travelling ink.
Jenni is also expanding her portfolio beyond work aimed primarily at children and hopes to see more of her art displayed in galleries. She describes herself affectionately as a “silver surfer” of life rather than the ocean, and approaches the future with a mixture of planning and openness.
“It is one huge arty adventure, and I’m thriving,” she says. “Long may it continue.”
You can find Jenni at:
Social media @jennirobsonart
Trust Pilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/jennirobson.com
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