Jen Hatt

I have been working in a car parts factory for the past four years and am looking to start selling my paintings. I have been making art since High School; approximately seventeen years. For the past seven years I have worked in Oil. Two years ago i started working with gouache (Opaque water colour) so now I do that in addition to oil. For the past two years I have been working from life as much as I can and have seen a great improvement in my ability because of it, especially in the initial stage of drawing. Working from life helps me to get a perspective that feels more natural to the way the eye sees as opposed to a camera. I have been doing a lot of plein air studies for the last three summers . I then use them along with photos to create larger paintings; usually 12 x 16 “, 18 x 24 “or sometimes bigger. The size has to depend on the perspective and what I think will be best for a particular subject. I also do still life paintings indoors in oil and in Gouache. I like doing still life because I often have more time to work on the subject as opposed to working on a painting outdoors. I can paint them a little larger because of that. It’s also really enjoyable to set up a subject because of the challenge of being the one to create the composition. I work from life when possible because it helps me to match the colours to what my eyes see as opposed to what my camera sees. When I use photo references there are a variety of them with different exposures. I’m a realist painter but I try to paint in a way that shows movement or some kind of emotional feeling. I have an instagram account where I post my paintings including some of my plein air studies; @jenhattartist. All my recent paintings are places in Ontario. They are scenes from my home in Wyevale, the local area, and from kayaking and camping trips to Muskoka.