Jennie De Groot

Jennie De Groot’s paintings occupy a space where reality, imagination and memory all hold equal tenancy. These psychological landscapes hold the tension between realism and abstraction, place and non-place.

De Groots’ landscapes are not literal in their depictions. Through layered gestures and emotive colour, the viewer is cued to recollect places visited and experiences had. These psychological landscapes are executed with a sense of pace and energy leading them to feel ephemeral and fleeting, similar to the associated memory. Philospoher Michel Foucault once stated that "memories are an echo from another time, another place", De Groots' paintings present us such echoes.

De Groot’s painting process involves building up layers and surfaces, moving paint through the use of varied tools. De Groot also paints En Plen Air, as the artist describes: "By painting on location, my relationship with nature is strengthened and I gain deeper insights. Field studies painted en plein air are an emotional response to the landscape.”

De Groot has been awarded for her painting including being named a Finalist in the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards (2017), a Finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award (2017), a Finalist in the Arts Gold Awards (2017) and the Winner of the Aspiring Art landscape prize (2016).

Jennie De Groot was Born in England and educated in South Africa, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Archaeology (which she sees as her introduction to the narrative in the landscape). Her move to New Zealand was an opportunity to paint full-time. She maintains a studio in semi-rural Ngahinapouri, Cambridge, New Zealand.