Welcome to my website!
My name is Jenna Martin Leitch and I’m an artist, illustrator and writer from Fife, Scotland.
My work is inspired by the treasures I find, in my everyday life and in the natural world. The joy they bring to me. The “happy” they make me feel.
I collect things; In my pockets, through my eyes, with my mind, and in my heart. The things we have lost. The things we have found. The sum of our parts. Through written word, drawn line, and painted hue; I make sure the magic is remembered and the JOY I FEEL is paid forward.
Come see me and my artworks and creations, at @perthcreativeexchange 10-5 both this Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th December, for their awesome Winter Market & Open Studios event.
My final event of the year, and I can’t wait to see you all.
It may be winter outside, but I can always promise a little bit (or maybe a big bit!) of sunshine when you visit my stall! ☀️
Come say hi! 👋🏻
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
Yesterday, I had the loveliest of days. A trip to Edinburgh with my good friend @louisekirbydesign to spend time amongst art galleries, and the city itself.
First stop was the @beyondmonetuk exhibition at the Royal Highland Centre.
I didn’t entirely know what to expect, but I found it incredibly moving. The sailing ship brought me to quietest and most gentle tears: I thought of my Dad.
There was lighthouse, which entranced me, and Louise noticed. So glad to have been surprised with a photo of me taking it in, once I got home.
It was magical, and immersive, and the colours… I was at a Japanese water garden just last weekend, and it made me think of Monet’s garden, and his waterfalls.
I jotted down words as we took it all in.
*************
Glimpses
embers
Fragments
Flow
Layers
Lucidity
Details emerging
Colour shifting
Ripples
Light and air
Quiet
A lighthouse.
Light reaching
Steadfast and intermittent light.
Journeying
Of sea and of sky and of land
***************
Reminders…..
We then headed into town, and to the @scottishgallery to see the most beautiful @mark_hearld show, his colour palettes and compositions blowing me away.
Then onwards to the @scottishstorytellingcentre to see the @picturehooks show. Lovely to see @estherjkent work on the wall. What a treat! Warm and enchanting as always. Such a beautiful space.
We lunched and we talked. Louise is such a good person to talk ideas and plans through with, and I think it was needed. It’s been quite the year… for one reason or another. But it felt like a nice marking point. A chapter pause. A turn of page……
Onwards. With ideas abounding and inspiration running high!
What a perfect day it was. I love Edinburgh, cold and sunny, my favourite kind of weather to enjoy it.
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#theartistsway
#JOYimprinted
I’ve been packing up all my creations in readiness for this weekends @perthcreativeexchange Winter Market & Open Studios event.
My final event of the year. We will be open 10-5 both Saturday and Sunday. 6th and 7th December.
Looking forward to it! ✨
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#makersmarket
#scottishartist
#scottishwriter
A candle burns for every day of advent.
Softly lighting our ways…
Twenty four, soft souls, flickering as they melt away.
Trickling wax, down candle side.
Smaller each day.
Yet, somehow brighter;
as the days move on.
~ what will you do to soften and brighten someone else’s day today?
Much love, to all who need it.
Jen x
#adventcandle
#hopecandles
#lighttheway
#brightener
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
(I’ll have a selection of small original ‘Hope Candle’ paintings and mixed media works with me at @perthcreativeexchange this weekend. Each one mounted, and ready to be framed. They make a beautiful and HOPEFUL gift.)
🕯️
Had the most lovely day on Saturday at @phemieloves with my sister in law @roslynleitchjewellery (who, even though we only live a mile from one another, we hadn’t chatted in too long a time!)
Great blethers, some lovely customers, thoughtful purchases for gifting made, which I am so very grateful for!
My evening was a whirlwind, heading up to Dundee straight afterwards for my works Christmas Do! It was the most festive of days, and as a designated driver for the evening, I was able to enjoy my meal, some awesome belly laughs and blethers, a wee dance (don’t think I was really off the dance floor!) then a respectable sneak away and drive home to my little family.
Yesterday was a day of seeing my Dad, football, putting the decorations up and some tasty batch cooked meals made.
It felt like the perfect balance of a weekend, and I feel ready to face a new week!
Which means…. THIS WEEKEND will see me travel across to Perth for the @perthcreativeexchange Winter Market & Open Studios! I’ll be there both days, Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th December.
This will be my last event of the year, and after that, I’ll be shutting shop, and switching firmly into family mode for the duration of the festivities.
So if you need any treats of a JOYimprinted variety… well head along and see me, as well as a whole other host of wonderful creatives, who would be as delighted to see you as me!
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#makersmarket
#whatsonperth
#whatsonperthandkinross
I’ll have this little winged beauty with me tomorrow on display at a pop-up at @phemieloves Markinch, along with my sister-in-law and most talented of souls @roslynleitchjewellery
We will be there 12-5. Be lovely if as many of you could come along as possible. It’ll be lovely one stop shop to celebrate and support local creatives.
Why not get your wine for your Christmas table at the same time as some gifts, cards and stocking fillers!
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#shoplocal
#colourfriday
This Saturday 29th November, you will be able to find myself, and my lovely (and very talented) sister-in-law @roslynleitchjewellery with our creations at @phemieloves in Markinch 12-5pm, for a lovely local wee festive pop-up!
It’ll be a perfect place to pick up some treats! I’m looking forward to seeing some of you lovely folks while we are there!
💛
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#festivepopup
#phemieloves
#scottishartist
#shoplocal
“The love we have never leaves…”
I wrote these words a while ago now. They have seemed to have connected with so many people. People who took the time to stand and read them. Or take them in, in their own time, whilst scrolling through posts.
There were about my Mum, when I wrote them, but now, I know how much they have resonated with others, I think they tell a broader story of love. Of loss. And of a connection that never ends.
Grief is so hard to navigate. It’s brutal and devastates. Changes your path. Interrupts your brain chemistry. Changes a future you may have imagined.
These words are a way I saw through it all. A finding.
I hope they help whoever may need to hear them today.
Jen x
#makingspacesothelightcangetin
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#thelovewehaveneverleaves
I’m just home from a night away, in a beautiful place I’ve never been before. New paths to wander and in the rain as well. So my favourite way to walk.
Bundled inside a raincoat, that has now proven time and again, that it leaks, and is not fit ‘for purpose’. All the same. I love it, and it was my coat of choice to wear for my walk.
Waterfalls and tiny bridges, streams in torrent and a dipper spotted flying low above the waters surface to edge.
Last night, the sky was bright with stars. Clear as crystal, not a cloud before the moon. Air as fresh and as clear as frozen breath.
I slept sound. Unbroken and quiet. I woke early. Excited to meet the morning and continue our conversations.
I spoke of my life and my days. My upbringing and past. My husband, our children and my now. My onwards purpose and hopes.
Raindrops on water. Circles expanding. Overlapping and paths converging.
The loveliest time spent.
#jennamartinleitchartist
#jennamartinleitchwriter
#JOYimprinted
a c o r n s
When seeds fall from trees, they find a place to rest.
They are planted, by time and being buried… By animals hiding in earth. By children planting or by grown ups placed for safe keeping, in plant pots.
Saplings peek from woodland floor, and grow. Over years and years and years. Slowly and slowly. Bit by bit by bit.
And then… an oak.
Most of us have a tendency, of beating ourselves up for not being our own version of an oak tree ‘sooner’. Not reaching heady heights. When in actuality, we should be glad of sheltering small creatures. Our children, our family, our friends. Being safe harbour in a prolonged shower of rain. Being shade from the blistering heat. A place to rest a weary traveler. A bough for a nest to perch.
We are many things… to so many… and always to ourselves.
An oak tree IS many things…
And all of this from an acorn. A seed.
Planted.
Give yourself time. Be patient. Be gentle with yourself. Grow. Be.
I’ve found, this year more than others, that we still grow, despite the conditions not being perfect.
We still provide, to those around us. We give parts of ourselves without even knowing.
Our purpose remains, even if the pace is slow as an oak. We still reach skywards.
Even when those skies seem stormy. Dark. Cloudy.
All but from just an acorn. To an oak.
#acorn
#begracious
#giveyourselftime
#oak
#JOYimprinted
We touch the lives of others.
Unknowingly we can change how others think. Enhance what they notice. Make them cherish things they hadn’t really thought of, or perceived, before.
We can bring magic, where before there was none. Bring light to the darkness; and show ways of being that sow intrigue into their everyday.
We can, by very thread of who we are, stitch wonder into the unassuming. We can, whisper hope, where before was an underlying, or sometimes overlying, sadness.
I wholeheartedly believe, our presence can bring change… bring solace… and bring a gift of noticing, heart, empathy and essence of spirit. To some, who without even realising, need it the most.
Parts of us, can go on to somehow keep achieving, in hidden ways, amongst the lives of others. Our values. Our sayings. Our idiosyncrasies become intrinsic.
In tiny microcosmic increments. An otherness. An also.
An always.
Like dust upon their surfaces. Ever present. Dancing in sunlight.
Intertwined. Interconnected. Interspersed.
Indeterminately.
The music playing on.
#JOYimprinted
#sleepwell
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
Light as lighthouse…
🕯️
#lighthouse
#candle
#beaconoflight
#whenlightplays
#makingspacesothelightcangetin
#lostatseawhilstsafeondryland
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#taighsolais
#sunlight
#letthelightin
