Biography
George Jennings is a fine art painter, best known for his portraits of women and children, who are not commonly centered in mainstream art. Formative close relationships with his grandmother, mother, and sister, have contributed greatly to his consistent focus on the diverse beauty of women.
His grandfather, the late visual artist, John N. Robinson (1912-1994) was his first art instructor and George went on to attend and is now an alum of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts (Washington, DC). After completing high school, he went on to serve in the U. S. Air Force and the U. S. Secret Service before moving to Seattle and being invited to be a guest instructor for both the Bellevue Art Museum, the Gage Academy of the Arts and the Northwest African American Museum.
Currently, he is working on a 40-piece portrait solo exhibit featuring paintings of Black women.
He has primarily created his pieces using oil and acrylic, and in the last few years has transitioned his art practice to using his traditional art skills to create with modern, digital, tools.
His canvas is now glass, and his brush is now a digital pencil. There is no photo manipulation involved as he still creates a detailed under drawing of each piece and then he layers in colors to create the final product.
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Artist Statement
I am often asked which artists inspire me and of course, the first would be my first art instructor, my grandfather, John N. Robinson. Over the years, I began to be exposed to many other artists’ works. Through this discovery, I began to be very much inspired by artists such as, Alphone Mucha, Maxfield Parrish, Patrick Nagel and I also have a strong love for Japanese Anime.
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For many years, I created art using oil as my primary medium however in 2008, I created my first piece with acrylic paint title “Seattle” and used acrylic paint until 2016 when I decided to delve into digital art. My most recent work, a digital art piece titled “Morning Fog”, is my way of expressing my feelings for my beloved city, Seattle, a place I’ve called home for the last twenty years. As far as my creative process is concerned I describe it this way: “I don’t always have “inspirations” for each one my paintings in the way that most people commonly think of inspirations because I typically will either have a simple thought, an idea, or even see a simple image in his mind that I will use to create my vision in a painting.
I do, at times, have influences from other great artists in history or amazing style of art that can be seen in parts of my work. A large part of my process is that when I sit down in my studio to begin working each day, I often listen to the eclectic collection of music on my iPod. Some of my favorite artists are Laura Nyro, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake because great music always helps provide me with the right environment to create. What I always try to do in my work is express the sense of and feeling of peace that I experienced while creating it. My hope is that when viewing any of my work it will cause a person pause and they will connect with the entire piece or even just a portion of the painting because it brings up a positive memory or thought of something that takes them back to a time in their past that could be as far back as childhood or even just yesterday but regardless it brings them joy.”