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The first of five children, Harrison was born in Hamilton, Ontario but spent most of her childhood in the adjacent suburb of Burlington. She achieved academic success throughout school but she was also precocious; suffering from a social dysfunction that caused difficulties at home and with friends. In 1992 she enrolled in Communication & Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design, hoping to pursue a career in television advertising. The program was not what she expected, and flustered by the overall college experience she dropped out after less than a year.
She stayed in Toronto and (after a series of odd jobs) she returned to painting with the help of some friends. Her artistic career officially began in 1999, and two years after her first exhibition she was represented by five different galleries across North America. After ten years of practice, her primary focus remains the neighbourhood, the street-scape, exaggerated colour and a repetition of detail. She is best known for her scenes of old houses, crowded together under pale blue skies and applied to the canvas in heavily textured layers.
Harrison has exhibited extensively in galleries in both Canada and the United States and her work has been represented at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City since 2002. Today, she continues to live and work in the west end of Toronto. (Spring 2008)
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An older piece c.1999, 'before texture'.
An early textured piece, c.2000.
"Desire", (the name of the red boat)
from the Toronto Canoe Club, 2000
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Catalogue Raison »
The texture of my paintings is achieved through a layering process; using first an impasto medium, then under-painting and finally, the colour. The colours I choose - though bright-seeming for Toronto houses - are more accurate than they seem and are easily found throughout the city. I simplify the structures so that I can concentrate on the pure colour as it's been faded and altered over time. I collect 'samples' of peeling paint off garages and fences then try to match them exactly with artists' oils. I mix these 'custom' colours in large batches and fill my own tubes; allowing me to do several series with a common, consistent palette.
I'm often asked if my paintings are based on St. John's or Newfoundland, but I've never been there in person and maybe only a handful are of different places on the east coast. In 'my early years' of working, I did a several series based on old photos of Nova Scotia and the eastern townships of Quebec.
I attribute my obsession with houses to a long-time interest in architecture; although I've made a few attempts at landscapes and trees. Early on I was divided between houses and boats; small boats and large freighters based on photos I found or took myself. Growing up around Hamilton Harbour I spent a lot of time watching ships pass back and forth and I still think there's a kind of unrecognized beauty in their size and subtlety of variations. Unfortunately, although I loved painting the freighters, source material became harder to find so I returned my focus to houses for now. (Summer 2007) |
One of my favourites c.2001, inspired
by an old photo of Africville, Nova Scotia.
"Red Porch", c.2002
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Catalogue Raison »
Jennifer Harrison was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1972. Belonging to a long line of mediocre (yet persistent) landscape artists, she first began painting at a prodigiously early age. Like most children, her inspiration to make art coincided with a specific need: to fill her hunger for pornography. Colouring-book pictures of Barbie, Cinderella and Snow White were altered with felt-tip pens; fish-net stockings and nipple-tassels transformed them into strippers and prostitutes.
By age 11, illicit photos had become easily attainable. Abandoning her former themes, she began expressing herself through less conventional media such as snow sculptures and Das. In 1988, she won a Halton-wide pumpkin-carving contest and was featured prominently in the "Lifestyles" section of The Hamilton Spectator.
After leaving her parents' house following her graduation of grade 13, Jennifer continued to paint and sculpt as a means to avoid buying gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Embarrassed by her success at home, she would rarely sign her pieces, making it hard to create retrospectives later in her career.
As a young adult, feeling strongly that she'd grown out of posters (and unable to afford anything else), she began making pictures to decorate her living-room walls. Her first subject was the house she'd rented in Toronto; a white-brick, two-story Victorian in the city's west-end. Satisfied with the results (and after receiving many compliments), Jennifer continued to paint houses as a means to avoid buying gifts for Christmas and birthdays.
Following her first 'real' gallery exhibition in 1999, Jennifer quickly developed the textural technique that she's best know for today. Since then, she's managed to sustain herself through painting and has exhibited extensively in galleries in both Canada and the United States. Though her materials and technique may continue to evolve, her favourite subject will always be the old houses and alleyways surrounding her house in Toronto. (1999, re-edited 2005)
"The Glen Falloch", c. 2001
"The Canadian Century", c. 2001
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