Jenny Nelson Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

It is with her commitment to a lifelong, organic process that Jenny Nelson has achieved what so many artists and creatives work for; a language and a technique that is very much her own. She has wooed audiences in the United States and abroad with consistently exquisite and balanced abstract paintings in neutral palettes of blues and grays that give way to pops of pink and orange. But to pin her as solely an abstractionist would be limiting her skill and versatility as a painter.

Classically trained at Bard College, Nelson’s thorough knowledge of composition and color relationships as experienced through drawing from life are the tools that prepared her to work in abstraction and develop her technique. Inspired by the photographs of artist Joseph Podlesnik, Nelson uses his architectural and observational compositions as the framework for her new work. While the origins of the photographs’ subjects are not recognizable in the finished painting, she channels the energy discovered in his real-life findings to her canvas for a result that is entirely abstract. Invigorated by this approach, she bravely moves forward, prepared to shift genres if that is, where her journey takes her.

Nelson also studied at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France and Maine College of Art. She completed a Residency at Byrdcliffe Art Colony from 2004–8 and has exhibited regionally and nationally for many years. Nelson currently teaches workshops and an ongoing weekly class at the Woodstock School of Art.

Find a collection of original Jenny Nelson art today on 1stDibs.