Designer Feature – Louise Jenkins

Hi everyone. Today I am featuring the exquisite work of illustrator and designer Louise Jenkins.

Copyright Louise Jenkins

Louise is based in the countryside of Worcestershire, UK and is experienced in illustration, surface pattern and ceramics. She graduated from Staffordshire University in 1997 with a BA (Hons) in Ceramic Design for Industry and a MA in Industrial Design.

Since then she has been Senior Designer at Royal Worcester Porcelain where among other things created the successful Jamie Oliver ranges of cook, table and giftware.

Arctic Fox – Copyright Louise Jenkins

Louise loves folk art, especially from Scandinavia. “I was brought up on the illustrations of Carl Larsson. There is a real fairytale beauty in the illustrations and I would stare at them for hours making up stories in my head.”

“Later whilst studying ceramics I fell in love with the work of Stig Lindberg, the Swedish artist and designer. His work shares the same love of folk traditions and life that Carl Larsson’s work did, but has a much more graphic feel to it.”

She marries these two styles by creating art “using traditional techniques of watercolour and gouache, but also has the strength of a more graphic image.”

Christmas Birds – Copyright Louise Jenkins

Louise comes up with ideas for her work while walking around the local countryside lanes.

“I make up little stories in my head as I go along and when I get home I just need to release them. I don’t tend to use a sketchbook, sometimes I’ll use a layout pad, I’ll draw straight onto tracing paper. This way the image can be put easily onto the watercolour paper I have stretched waiting for me. On the more graphic pieces I just use gouache, but more recently I’ve enjoyed using watercolour washes to build up the image.”

Work in Progress – Copyright Louise Jenkins

Despite the graphic look of her work, Louise doesn’t use  a computer. “I spent pretty much 10 years in a design job where I was glued to one and I wanted to get back to my roots. I’m much happier working this way and find it a much more natural process.”

Knightly Fox – Ohh Deer Pillow – Copyright Louise Jenkins

Louise has recently started a fairytale series on her blog where you can follow the adventures of a Foxy Fairytale. Click here for this enchanting story with beautiful illustrations.

A Foxy Fairytale – Copyright Louise Jenkins

You can see more of Louise’s work on her webpage. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook ♡

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