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.
My dad would always say, “take care of each other” to me, every time I left him. His parting words, ever ones of togetherness, and gentle reassurance.
Not just a singular, always a “love to all”, or “give them my love”. Our little family group, always the care to each of us as a whole given.
A lighthouse man, a Martin, a giver of ‘green butterfly’ awards in the north east, my inspiration to forge forward in my writerly hopes. This little cluster of cardigan bound badges, each speak of him. Grouped also, in familial togetherness.
I am reminded, every day, to keep doing my best within our little family. Our girls, ever growing, personalities and lives more their own than ever, they fly the nest a little more with every feat of trepidation they achieve.
Some days, spent with friends, at school, at camps, and latterly, in different countries even to my husband and I. They are resilient and bold, quietly confident, and although perhaps reserved at times, they are courageous souls, the pair of them.
Life has always felt boundless to me. No finite quality to ‘what I want to be when I grow up’, the same applies to them. Their lives will evolve, just as they do, just as we all do within our own, also.
We strive to provide, and ends will be met, fortune is great in the love we are lucky enough to hold between us.
It’s my boy cats birthday today. His life too, rich in circumstance. Woodlands surrounding our home, he lives a blessed life, and we are happy to share it with him.
My point being, we take care of one another, and I have tried so hard to do so, ever since Dad passed. Mum also. Like they did for me. I cannot be everything to everyone, but I can try to be my best me, to these five other souls I share my closest life with.
Flowers planted, which my Dad gave to me, grow. Ladybirds are appearing. The sun still shines. I draw, I paint, I write. I run, I lift, I walk. I work. I love.
Small things, actually, are the big things.
Ever onwards.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
A new moth in progress for a new year! 🕯️
#JOYimprinted
#moth
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#emperor
n o t i c i n g
A double daisy! Look at all the sunshiny pollen dusting the petals too. 💛
A gorgeous 4.5 mile solo brisk walk this morning, after my first yoga session back in a while. I’ve a terrible niggle that I’m working on getting back to happy with, so a bit of pain relief, a hot water or two, some massage gun/tennis ball to help loosen, and yes, keeping moving.
So glad of the daylight. It felt very much like spring today, and I am sure that the fresh air and taking in the world around me helps as much as anything.
My body hasn’t really felt my own this last while, but, in other ways, creatively and calmly, I have felt like the haze of grief has lifted a tiny bit.
I recognise it will ever be a constant, but it changes, and this week has felt a little different. Subtle… but different nevertheless.
A double daisy. Proof my eyes and heart are still open to the world around me.
What a Bobby dazzler.
✨
#JOYimprinted
#daisy
#noticings
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#naturegirl
s t o r y t i m e
A Martin myself, a (House) Martin, I watch fly… My newest Ode, the one for the year previous, a story in paint of the year of 2025. The image that describes last year for me.
I am an artist, illustrator and writer based in Fife, Scotland. I am inspired by my time in the great outdoors.Through open-hearted & wide-eyed observation of the natural world, my intricate and detailed works are filled with wonder and imagination. The tiny details that may go unnoticed & the treasures I find along the way. I create works to bring JOY!
I grew up in the wilds of Aberdeenshire. With the countryside as my playground.
I am a past graduate of DJCAD; graduating in 2001 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Printmaking. I work primarily in graphite and coloured pencil, Japanese watercolour and written word. My ethereal art works have a connection to both my own childhood surrounded by the wildlife and countryside of the North East, and I also use this imagery to create visual stories for my own children.
The imagery I create is sunshine filled, bursting with love, and often whimsical. With JOY at their centre.
Birds feature a great deal, with flight and feathers being one of my main sources of inspiration.
“Helping you find your happy, as I go about my life finding mine…!
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#scottishartist
#JOYimprinted
#HouseMartin
#ICantKeepThisMoment
Sometimes the world we create for ourselves fails to feel real. Like we have not yet earned true ‘success’. Our trying, under appreciated by those who hold clout, and our hard work lost a bit, in a world in which those who have millions behind their business and celebrity, are the ones who seem to be celebrated and invested in.
With my last few years having been dominated by an overriding requirement to care for my Dad, I have been unable to continue to grow and build on my previous few years sustained progress in my own small business.
It was all exciting and full of promise, but has diminished somewhat, in these senses, due to lack of time, and grief thereafter.
A natural story arc, in terms of where life has taken me. Nevertheless, it’s frustrated me, and sometimes I’ve felt stuck.
Aware though I am, of my continuing need to be a creative. To draw, and paint and write, all of these elements are in me. They need nurtured and furthered, because I NEED them in my life. However small. However incremental. They are mine, and they bring me so much joy.
So buoyed I was then, to be sent this image from my good friend from school. After a parents night at her daughter’s school. She opened one of her jotters and read these words. Taking a photo to send on… forwarding to me, with the words, ‘P.S incase it’s not clear she is talking about you Jen... Xxxx’
I was filled with tears. Happy ones. A small child, inspired by me… I felt, it had all come full circle, despite my inner fear of ‘falling behind’.
Friends have told me that I’m doing well. That I’m an inspiration. That it doesn’t show, in my work or my business, how ‘behind’ I feel…. However, they are my friends, and they love me, and somehow, although true, THESE words from the daughter of my friend, hit home. Real and true.
I’m doing ok, actually, aren’t I? I thought. I sat with them, I re read them.
My work has inspired her. Hanging on the walls of her home. Elements of my world, are a part of her. Intrinsic and absorbed.
Children are the future… and she has emboldened mine.
Thank you sweet soul.
Ever onwards.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
A few hours without distractions, spent editing some new birdies whilst milking a large cappuccino! It’s been forever since I worked somewhere that wasn’t my dining table at home or my studio… and I’ll admit, it was very, very lovely.
The usual opening and closing of doors to facilitate cats coming in, or going back outside… on repeat. Cats playing a usual game of ‘I’m starving!!’ Whilst sat gazing at me longingly from beside the kitchen cupboard. Cats also, knocking pencils off the table, to gain MORE of my attention. Washing finishing… washing machine beeping… washing to be hung up… washing to put on. Snacks to peruse in the fridge. Extra coffees to make. Knocks at the door. Post through the letterbox… all those things, did NOT happen. For 3 blissful hours, and it was so productive. Focus was easy. Maybe this is a plan to continue into the coming months should that level of concentration be required again.
Earphones in and tune after glorious tune. Some notemaking in my journal and reminders placed in my 2026 Juniper Press diary (which is beautiful, and such a joy to fill with lovely plans).
New ways of working, and new ways of BEING refresh our minds and our experiences. They do say a change is as good as a rest, and today, weirdly, felt so very restful despite the productivity that occurred as a result!
Ever onwards.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#scottishartist
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#birdiesinflight
#whatsonmydesk
I hoped for a piece of cobalt blue sea glass.
I imagined we would find it at the far end of the beach. Where we would then turn and come back.
It happened. Just as we reached our farthest point, it lay there on the sandy ground.
‘There it is!’ I shouted to my daughter, as if, this particular piece was the one I had searched for. Like I had lost it, and only this jewel of ocean worn blue would be found so gladly.
Like it was meant. Like it was mine. Like it was ours.
The sea brought it to me. Time and space to look. Mindful searching of the sand.
Look at it though! Look through it to the blue.
We found it. 💙
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#blue
A day of love, light, and lovely places with the loveliest people.
The gym early doors for some strength and conditioning. Some new artwork editing, this Sunshine Yellowhammer freshly flying into the world! Lunch with my littlest (who is nearly as tall as me now!!!) and my husband made it too! Then a gorgeous sunny and still wander along Leven beach with my daughter also. Mindfully collecting sea glass (me) and shells and interesting rocks (her). Two and a half miles of chats and gentle steps, surrounded by the sounds of the sea, and birds aplenty.
Aw, it was so good. So sooo good. Feel calmer and happier for it.
#JOYimprinted
#yellowhammer
#birdiesinflight
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
My Alba basking in sunshine in one from a couple days ago, and fuming at the fact she was unable to have her breakfast yesterday morning in the other.
A trip up to my work for a dental. I was on recoveries and post operative care yesterday, so was thankful to be able to nurse her until we returned home.
Breakfast eaten today, a small jaunt into the garden, and pain relief taken, I hope her mend will be swift and trouble free.
Alba is my little sidekick, my heart cat and my spirt animal, it has always felt.
Everyone cross fingers she heals well.
Animals prove such a comfort, in all the times, I think, but particularly in times of need. She rests with me.
So very grateful for my amazing friends and colleagues who cared for her so well yesterday.
#mycatalba
#albagubràth
#artcat
#caturday
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
My journal entry from March is rich in connection to home and to who I am.
A Martin. In essence and in actuality. One who loves to travel; and to whom home is so very important.
I speak of migration and murmurations.
If you’d like to read more, the link to my website is in my bio, but also, I’ll post a link in my stories.
Words, act as art in themselves, I SEE the imagery I create as I write. I know not all people do, I can’t imagine my wordy world any other way!
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#housemartin
#migratorybirds
#scottishartist
A n G i b l e a n
A p r i l
April is here. No fools played on me… I was well and truly aware that it was the first of the month, where jokes are played and, otherwise, we feel ready to be caught out.
Not I, for once I was very ready to step into this new month. With trepidation perhaps, but still, here, with every aspect of my being.
I have written in recent days, of feelings, happenings and more, in a new journal post. Placed on my website, I have linked it in my stories, and I’d love if you stopped by to read what I have written.
I have been painting again. Katie asked yesterday, “has it been helping?” The answer being yes. In ways, I can’t so truly and so richly verbalize, as what putting paintbrush and pencil to paper does, in its own special way… but it very much has.
New birds, and ideas spring forth, taking flight, and breathing easier, for the light that is within our days now.
I feel steadier in ways. In a different place in terms of grief. Not easier, but changing… as the seasons do also.
There are other journal posts too, for each month that has been before. Each carefully thought and crafted. Words playing a generous part, in helping me work things through.
Welcome then, to you, to April.
An Giblean in the Scottish Gaelic.
We continue. Learning as we go.
Jen x
#AnGiblean
#AprilComeSheWill
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#longtailedtit
I stopped yesterday morning… roadside, behind trees. The trees between the sun and I.
Like criss cross and spider web, the fractals of lights disconnected, but at the same time enhanced, by the tangle before it.
Sunlight, so bright, so warm, so rich. I thought it like ember, burning in grate, as if a fire in smolder.
The warmth apparent, it was just after 6 in the morning, but yet, I’d been awake for hours already. Gym done, and heading back homewards for coffee, shower, get ready for work, and then head to Dundee by 7.
My day often starts about 4.30am. I sleep well, deep, dream full, but, my waking hours are from early bird to early bed. I am not a night owl, and in those spring, summer months, I’m so glad of early light.
It fills me up, makes my aliveness more apparent, and palpable within.
Frequently asked, if I could ‘sleep longer’, the answer is no. I could pretend, but I don’t. I could lay still, quiet, but rest would not be within me. I would be alert, and thinking. Thought after thought after thought, but with no action to quell the lists I create in my head.
Days of plans and of promise, therefore, start early.
It helps me see the light. It helps me create and forge and write. Exercise and sit in the quiet. All the things which help me keep doing what I love.
Brightness. With space to let the light in.
(I wanted to tell you of that sunrise Dad.)
The last day of @marchmeetthemaker and a frequently asked question… how do I fit it all in? The answer… because I am a better person for it, so I just make it happen. Little pieces, placed together. Each of them mine, light falling upon them. Not all as big or as ‘perfect’ as I’d hope, but I do my best, and I continue. As he, and they, would have hoped for me.
#marchmeetthemaker
#faq
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
#sunrise
