This month, we’re excited to spotlight Jessica Parker, a Cotswolds-based mixed media artist and founder of Kingfisher Studios. Deeply inspired by nature, shifting landscapes, and found materials, Jessica’s work blends abstract realism with a strong environmental ethos.
In this blog, she shares her creative journey, from painting with her mother in Yorkshire to curating a thriving studio space in a former Witney blanket factory. She talks about the inspiration she finds in seasonal hedgerows, the creative recharge of Oxfordshire Artweeks, and her love for mark-making using unexpected tools like twigs, feathers, and old credit cards.
With a background in Art and Environmental Studies and a passion for reuse and repurposing, Jessica’s art invites us to look closer at the overlooked, and to embrace the unpredictable joy of the creative process.
Q. Where have you found inspiration lately?
A. We have recently had Oxfordshire Artweeks and every year this festival really gives me an “inspirational recharge”. I think there were over 400 artists taking part this year exhibiting work across the region and seeing the range of talent and work this is not only inspiring but also challenging.
I have always been interested in old, abandoned and derelict things, particularly where its possible to see man’s impact on the landscape. This often a subject central to my work.
Q. Is there a piece of art or a project that you are particularly excited about right now?
A. I am working on a hedgerow series at the moment which I am really enjoying. I live in the Cotswolds and am surrounded by fields bounded by hedges. Seeing how they change and evolve over the seasons, and often over quite a short period of time, is captivating. They can change almost daily. I am loving the different colour palettes, shapes and textures materialising before my eyes, connecting to the past as flowers and trees move into the next season leaving a skeleton of their past.
Q. What kinds of tools or references do you like to use when creating artwork?
A. I am a mixed media artist and am always on the lookout for interesting textures and shapes. I run a workshop at the studio called “Anything but Brushes” which is one of my favourites. Mark making with twigs, feathers old credit cards and using hair, grains of sand or fine metal filings I find really inspiring. I have a reuse, recycle mentality and can see alternatives uses and life in most things that might be otherwise be rejected.
Q. What artists or artworks (from your lhistory) do you admire or consider influential to your work & why?
A. Like many people, I love the work on the impressionists and the impact they had on the artworld. Seeing light through colour and shape. In more recent times I love John Pipers Paintings, especially his old and crumbling buildings and his use of mixed media. Current artist that really have inspired me are Louise Fletcher, Debbie Loane and Mike Bernard all who work with mixed media.
Q. What advice do you have for other new or aspiring artists
A. Do what feels right for you, spend hours, if not days, playing with researched techniques and don’t try to make pretty pictures. Be inspired by those artists you love but don’t try and copy them as it doesn’t work. Go with your gut and have a thick skin because its tough and art is highly subjective and be prepared to get up again if someone knocks you down. Spending too much time trying to work out where you want to be and planning a route to get there, is just not what life as an artist is. You never have that luxury. You don’t know what is around the corner and you have to use everything that life throws at you and always look to be positive and productive.
Q. Professionally, hat has been your biggest achievement so far?
A. Establishing Kingfisher Studios and Gallery in Oxfordshire. I now paint and teach from the riverside space in what was part of one of the original Witney blankets factories. I run weekly classes and workshops and now almost make a living from it all which I think in this day and age is a massive achievement! My work is in a number of galleries locally and I’d love to see it exhibited a little bit further afield.
Q. What is your first memory of creating art?
A. Playing around with pencils and paint at home with my mother during school holidays in the late 1960’s and early seventies My mother, who is now 93, has been a tremendous influence on me. She’s a fantastic artist in her own right and has always encouraged me to go for it. She lives in North Yorkshire, and I don’t see enough of her but she’s recently spent some time with me at the studio and we had 3 or 4 days playing around with paint – it was like turning the clock back for both of us.
Q. How do you spend your time when you’re not creating artwork?
A. I’m now in my early 60’s and like most of us conscious about my health, and fitness Couch to 5K is now becoming part of my life! I have also recently started NIA dance classes which I am loving. It’s a physical version of my whole approach to my art – no barriers, letting go and seeing where the music and movement takes you. Look into it and have a go – it’s a lot of fun.
Q. What work do you most enjoy doing?
A. I love just painting for myself. I love experimenting and just letting go. I might have an idea on my mind, often lead by a texture or a colour. Making the first marks is often the most challenging but once I get going, I can work very quickly and when it comes, it comes, and I love it!
I also love teaching and find it keeps my own work fresh – there’s nothing like being accountable to others which creates a balance to working on my own.
Q. What is your dream project?
A. Working closely with a client who comes to me with a very broad idea of what they have in mind in terms of a theme and then working though this together. If we end up on the same wavelength and they love the work, it’s a complete dream! I was commissioned to do a series of Cornish paintings on large canvases and doing the research in that part of the world was really exciting while looking for ideas and information to take back to the studio.
To do something similar with new clients is something I always aspire to and find the most rewarding.
Thank you, Jessica, for sharing your inspiring journey and giving us such a vivid window into your creative world. To see more of her beautiful mixed media work and stay connected, be sure to follow Jessica on Instagram and visit her website.
We’ll be back next month with another inspiring artist spotlight so stay tuned!