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.
Enjoyed this composition. Thrown together on tarmac pavement by a wind and tree collaboration.
I imagined giant balloons being pulled by a flock of green winged birds. Toward a tree lined avenue.
Little things. Big imagination.
Magic 🍃🍁
#noticings
“Life currently requires tentative care.
Tightrope walking on miles high sail masts
Balancing precariously, while the sea rages
below us…”
~ JML
I write most days. As I walk or sit at peace, words come to my mind. Sometimes thick and fast, sometimes in phrases. Sentences. Full paragraphs.
They are conjured from a somewhere and I itch to get home. To keep them safe, and written down for keeps, in my journal.
Mostly, recently the words have been things I’ve wanted to remember from moments spent with Dad.
Things he’s said. I’ve thought. I’ve noticed or he’s mentioned.
Stories of his now and of his then. Either way. They both feel quite fragile and momentary. I need them written, so as to keep them safe.
To keep me safe in ways. It solidifies and makes real the feelings and the emotions that wax and wane, like the moon does also, and I realise we are all one and the same.
I read back the words, not at the time, as I let them flow. But afterwards, days, or weeks even, and some just seem so visceral, real, felt. And I feel them again.
Words work magic. We know that. I love that I can marry my words of my Dad, whilst typing on my Mum’s typewriter. Bringing them back together somehow.
Waves rise and fall. The hammers of the keys hit the paper as so. The letters are imprinted.
It is told.
“Lost at sea, whilst day on dry land”
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#scottishartistandwriter
#mymumstypewriter
#lostatseawhilstsafeondryland
My home studio is pint sized and full… of all of my artistic requirements and belongings.
Market stock. Packaging and paper. Memories and mementoes. Of lives gone by and bits and pieces collected over time.
Possessions of my Mum’s, passed to me. Correspondence and journals. Pen pals, and posted wonders.
Nature found treasures. A whole host of found feathers.
Childhood drawings from my little girls.
A big bright window, that lets the light pour in… in different ways on different days. Hour by hour by hour. Golden light and morning light.
My typewriter, which was once my Mums. My computer for all my editing and emails.
Books. Upon books. Upon books.
It’s full. And it fills me full, of hope and of peace. It’s my place to retreat to…
My place to create.
@jillyjillystudio captured it so beautifully here, on her recent trip to my home and my studio. A day filled to the top with happy.
I’m not taking part in Open Studios this coming weekend. The Showcase event at the @adam_smith_theatre for @centralfifeartistscollective was more than enough for me! I loved it.
Many others are open still this weekend coming. Locally, you can find my good pal @katiebirdiedoes in Markinch, and @patbeveridgeart up at her Pitcairn studio.
In Burntisland @leodufeu at the train station. @susieredman at the Platform Studios. Plus many more nearby.
In Kirkcaldy, @fay_mcglashan at her home studio and within the @kingstheatreartists the lovely @sarahwakeford.art amongst others.
It’s such a brilliant event, and so lovely to get the chance to see in real life, the places where so many beautiful creations are made, first hand, and by hand.
If ever you would like to commission me or come and see some of my work, do feel free to message. We could have a cuppa and a blether.
📷 @jillyjillystudio
#openstudios
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#scottishartist
#artforyourhome
A Monday morning walk with the peace and quiet all mine.
Woods acting like a treasure trove. Glints of emerald greens and ruby reds. Garnets and gold, in the autumnal detritus.
My writing book. Where words of my life just now are being collected. My Dad. Stories told.
#JOYimprinted
#noticings
#treasures
#inspiredbyadventure
#getoutside
Some weekends are just what you need… ☀️💛
Cup filled. Beautiful conversations. Goosebumps and connections. So needed and so enjoyed.
Thank you so so much to all who stopped by, and all of the fellow artists and designers from @centralfifeartistscollective for your company!
@adam_smith_theatre has been such a top venue. Such a privilege to be able to show my work within its walls.
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#JOYimprinted
#scottishartist
#scottishwriter
#fifeartistsandmakers
Day 2! @centralfifeartistscollective Showcase at the @adam_smith_theatre Kirkcaldy continues today 10.30-4.30!
It’s been so lovely meeting and blethering to all the visitors and fellow artists and designers also!!
It’s just the best when you are there to witness people connect to your imagery and your words. To see and feel it first hand. The goosebumps and the magic! ✨
So here’s to more of the same today!!!!!
☀️
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#fifeartistsandmakers
#whatsonfife
#JOYimprinted
These cheery wee faces will be here along with their creations, amongst the displays of 32 different artists and creatives at the @adam_smith_theatre Kirkcaldy, as part of the @centralfifeartistscollective Showcase 10.30-4.30pm both today and tomorrow!
@jennamartinleitch
@carolinemcgonigalartist
@katiebirdiedoes
@juliecampbelldraws
#JOYimprinted
#scottishartistsandmakers
#fifeartists
#centralfifeopenstudios
#centralfifeartistscollective
#whatsonfife
The @centralfifeartistscollective Showcase is ON, both today and tomorrow! 10.30-4.30pm Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September.
My display amongst a host of other creative wonders can be found UPSTAIRS in the @adam_smith_theatre in the beautiful Beveridge Suite.
Last nights preview event went well, and was so lovely to see some of my CFAC friends for a catch up! Also a surprise visit from an old friend from my art college days at @djcad_uod
I graduated there in 2001 with a BA Hons in Fine Art Printmaking. It feels like a lifetime and a blink ago both at once. We spoke of our lives since, and lovely to hear how she has been doing.
I’d love to see MORE friendly faces across the rest of the weekend!!!
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
A poppy grew, taller than East Lomond… nestled within field of daisies… greens and yellow, brightest white tangled.
Only from my perspective viewed. It looked like a giant. Glowing red high above in the Fife sky. Hilltop in silhouette, it stood towering above.
Like a guardian… the poppy to the hill, the hill to me. Each of us a lookout for the other.
Community in nature. Unspoken but noticed.
We can be a daisy, or a mountain, or a poppy, or ourselves. Each a something to the other. No-one bigger or better in actuality. Just a view point, and a person to be on any given day.
~ Jenna Martin Leitch
#JOYimprinted
#makingspacesothelightcangetin
#lostatseawhilstsafeondryland
Tomorrow will see me step out of my studio and into the wonderful @adam_smith_theatre Kirkcaldy, as part of the @centralfifeartistscollective Showcase event.
With an opening night 7-9pm tomorrow evening, and then continuing this Saturday and Sunday 10.30-4pm, you will be able to find me in the beautiful Beveridge Suite for the duration.
Amongst friends and fellow artists and creatives, we hope this event bringing 32 of us together in such a great place, will prove to be a hugely positive and popular development for the collective as a whole.
The promotion of the arts, and of each of our practices and our creations in the process, is exciting for us all.
We can’t wait to see you, so please do come and visit and share about it with all your friends also!
Grab a cuppa and a bite to eat too. The perfect day out!
🌻
📷 @jillyjillystudio
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#cfac
#centralfifeartistscollective
#fifeartistsandmakers
#scottishartist
#artonyourdoorstep
f e a t h e r b r u s h
Meanderings and emotions.
Drawing and painting. The writing down of words. Phrases complete or offering sufficient in explanation… as to my why. My wherefore.
The art I create acts as cathartic resolution. A coming to terms, and a therapy of sorts. Time taken to compile. A richness. To be seen. To be followed. To be witnessed.
A path travelled by line on paper. Made visible… and made told. Our histories and our lives collide. In a gentle enrapture. Like a warmth, left where we once were. For someone else to arrive, and know that gentleness exists, or existed there once.
With the twists and turns of life, as inspiration. I marry my findings within my days (feathers, memories, feelings) with my noticings from the world around me. As if to lay bare, as if to find substance to grasp onto. Talisman and totem, both. Reminders.
Remaining.
~ Jenna Martin Leitch
#JOYimprinted
#makingspacesothelightcangetin
#lostatseawhilstsafeondryland
📷 @jillyjillystudio
My father’s hands as waves… 🌊
(My) ‘Old Man of the Sea’
Part of a greater body of work I am on the cusp of… with writings unfolding, and words intertwined.
Sea spray and weather worn, like the rocks tumbled in the oceans. Softened and storm sculpted. My dad has spoken to me… in riddle and in clarity… these last months.
So grateful for all the years of my life he has guided. A beacon in my days. Ever showing me the way. Ever shining. Darkness lit and day times warmed.
I have watched his hands as he has spoken, and they rest into one another. Sometimes tumultuous. Twisting. Sometimes soft as if calm seas. Surface glinting. Storytelling. They turn.
Either way. They are his. They speak of his life.
~ Jenna Martin Leitch
#JOYimprinted
#lostatseawhilstsafeondryland
#makingspacesothelightcangetin
