About Jenny
Jenny McKinnon Wright is an award-winning artist who believes that working in plein air allows her to "capture the emotion that only painting in that location can offer." For those who have her work in their homes, Wright’s sense of color shines through. Although she is personally enlivened by the locations she paints, those places can become the viewer’s own experience. Hanging in private collections from New York to Florida and in Europe, Wright’s paintings can also be seen in Sunset River Marketplace Gallery in Calabash, NC and in select locations in that region.
A plein air painter who works primarily in oil, Jenny McKinnon Wright’s formal art training began at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, and continued with graduate work in Atlanta at Georgia State University. She has taught art in the North Carolina and Georgia school systems and instructed private students of all ages. Inspired as a student by the Impressionists, Wright studied with Perry Austin, Charles Gruppe, and Susan Sarback.
The artist explains her approach to landscape painting in plein air as both an emotional and conscious response to what she sees:
Something captures my eye — the light, the lines, the colors that I actually see. If the light on an old building is glowing in the late afternoon, I might underpaint the scene in a warm red. Later, that underpainting will shine through and give the painting the glow that captured me earlier.
I’m drawn to the dramatic lines of nature or of structures and how they create a focal point for a painting. The strength of a composition is often suggested by these strong lines—a boat’s mast or the pillar of a building simply frames a landscape.
A palette knife allows me to paint nature’s textures. I can apply fresh color over wet. With the knife, I can capture the texture of a tree covered in lichen or the sparkle on water as it moves.
Make a Jenny McKinnon Wright work part of your personal collection. Her plein air paintings of the remarkable landscape of the southeast - rich in beaches, marshes, mountains, rivers, and historic points - will let you experience the color and strength of that region for years.
Photo by Matt Born, courtesy of the StarNews