About

feel free to email me at:

JenniferMarieKeller@gmail.com

Biography

Curious portraits - an old and battered relief sculpture of cherubs - the dusty work table of an alchemist. Each painting conveys a story with mystery and romanticized light.  Her paintings invite the viewer to look through windows into how the artist, Jennifer Marie Keller, sees her world.

Jennifer’s personal journey as an artist began in her childhood.  Born in 1989 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jennifer showed an aptitude for art from an early age.  

“My mom said I would hide paper and crayons under my pillow so I could draw after my bedtime.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be an artist. I see the world as intensely beautiful and I have always wanted to give others that visual pleasure. ”

In high school, Jennifer began taking private art lessons.  This is when her work moved from drawing to oil painting. Later on in high school she took a summer painting class from Saint Francis University.  

Jennifer went on to receive her bachelor degrees in two dimensional arts with a focus in painting from Bowling Green State University. Not only developing her painting skills this also  began her love for art history and studying the old masters work. She was awarded the Palmer’s Travel Scholarship one summer and was able study art history in Rome and neighboring Italian cities. During her last two years of school Jennifer was a studio assistant to portrait painter Leslie Adams.  

After graduation Jennifer had her studio in Indianapolis.  During this year of painting and shows, she stumbled across classical painting and drawing ateliers.  Which is how she found the Ravenswood Atelier in Chicago. A program that teaches painting the same way the old masters she admires were taught.

“I remember The Ravenswood Atelier so fondly.  It is what had the most impact on making me the painter I am today.”  Jennifer studied at her atelier for 5 years, during her last 2 years she was also a student teacher.  She studied under Matthew and Magdalena Almy who both graduated from the Florence Academy of Art.

While at her atelier Jennifer was not only learning how to paint but in her free time was also studying what to paint.  “I am a very curious person. I love that mysterious exhilarating feeling of curiosity and I want to infuse that in my images.  A curious slice of a story that the viewer can fill in with their own answers. Music, books, and the classics are great places where I find inspiration. I’ll take a scene from Macbeth that invokes an idea and keep flipping it around and around in my head until I get a really interesting image. ”

One of the many things that makes Jennifer Marie Keller’s paintings so special are the different textures that can be found in them.  In one painting you can find the paint handled in a multitude of ways giving so much interest to wherever you look at the painting. “I am pushing myself to find the variety in a painting, from the image it is expressing to how it was painted.  I want there to be little surprises that you can find the more you look at it, as in interesting brushwork in the foreground or a scraping affect in the corner. I find paint to be endless with possibilities of how it can be manipulated and I want to explore its full potential to make a really interesting painting.”  

Jennifer Marie Keller has recently moved to Northern California where she works in her studio.