Meet Jennifer Crawley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Crawley.

Hi Jennifer, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
For me, art started as a young child. Growing up, I watched my mother reproduce paintings for the house. She would paint the masters, Picasso, ,Renoir, Modigliani and more. For her it was easy in the same way drawing came easily to me and eventually painting.
I started being commissioned when I was 19 yrs old while simultaneously running a nail salon in the Toronto, Beaches area. Painting hit me in a profound way and I soon started transitioning into painting full time.

A couple of years later, after finishing my first mini collection in acrylic, (the New Orleans/Vegas collection) I met a gallery owner named Johnny Casuccio (Casuccio Gallery, Ossington and Queen W). He would go to Cuba and buy directly from the artists and sell the work from Toronto. He was a bit of a mentor for me and he helped arrange my 6 mos stay in Camaguey, Cuba. I was introduced to Mejias, a local Cuban Art director/teacher and he arranged my meetings with several artists while I lived and painted there. Even though I took a Spanish course before I left Toronto, there was still a language barrier however I did manage to understand the majority of what they were saying to me and their art spoke for itself.

I met many talented artists while living there and was inspired by their work. I created a few paintings while in Cuba (one that took three months shown here) and painted the rest from Canada. Cuba is where I found my style of work and the Cuban Collection is my first collection of oil paintings that I am still adding to almost twenty years later.

I went on to create the Toronto collection, Lions Head collection, Victoria collection, Lilies mini collection, Fruitful mini collection and several more pieces and commissions you can check out on my Instagram accounts. JC Custom Artwork and Jennifer Crawley Originals.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There were definitely obstacles, challenges and struggles along the way for me although I was already experiencing them with my small business.
I was in a way jumping ship and fantasizing that painting could help me escape my world. Which it did.
For me, painting has been a vehicle allowing me to drive into areas I probably wouldn’t have been eager to explore, such as poverty and depression. That being said, I believe the struggles that we face in life are there to teach us something.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Once I was living in Cuba, I was able to really hone in on my style. I would go out and shoot all day or whenever I saw something that would catch my eye and I would edit the photos every night from my Sony camera, zooming in and cropping once I would see something I wanted to paint. At first, I graphed my work but in 2007-2008 from Waterloo Ontario Canada, I started to use a technique I call “ foursies” which allows me to almost duplicate the image quickly.
What separates you : For me, it starts with the photograph. I really love capturing the details of a street scene with my camera and it’s exciting to bring a moment to life through a painting. It’s also a historical snapshot in a way. I like how I can be transported to that city or location when I look at some of my work.

After Cuba, I spent a lot of time working on custom commissions and the treasured photo arena. I enjoy making these paintings for people because it can bring them closer to a loved one through art.
You can check them all out on my Instagram JC Custom Artwork.

What’s next?
I am currently working on a new collection titled the Massive Collection. I have already created one of seven and I’m very excited to create the next six.
You can see the progress by following my new page Jennifer Crawley Massives on Instagram.

Pricing:

• Treasured Photo starts at $500.00
• Original Work starts at $2000.00
• Custom Commission starts at $2000.00

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifercrawleyoriginals/