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.
The @art.and.nature.collective group exhibition of small works titled “What We Hold Still” opens tomorrow night at the @greengallery.dbg at @dundeebotanics
Running to the end of July. I have four artworks as part of it.
“Paperboat”
Japanese Watercolour on wood panel
5 x 7 inches
“My father had the most gentle presence. So very thoughtful. He was a noticer, and wherever we travelled, he would notice tiny details in the landscape. Whether up close on trail, or from car window, he would spot beautiful minutiae, a trait I am so proud to have inherited. Parts of him remain, held within me it seems.
‘A guiding light, my beacon, that shone in the dark.
Ever present, and the most gentle of presence. Steadfast... Yet unbound.
Alighting on surface found. We met,
where we were.
Calm and kindness, wrapped up
in the warmth of fatherly love.
I wish I could have bottled it.
A message in glass bottle held.
Treasured.
Whilst in sky,
A letter now,
folded paper, as paperboat.
Moon lit.
He floats away forever’ “
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#mydad
#paperboat
⛵️🌊
Imaginings of the ocean on my early morning blue sky walk.
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#noticings
#theseaandme
🌱
An t-Iuchar
J U L Y
With half of the year behind us, July has arrived and I was ready to welcome it.
Bleary eyed and without sufficient sleep, I knew heading outside would be the best way to begin this new month.
Sun shining, and mist rising from fields, the trees stood aloft as if summoning up courage against an army of birdsong.
The want to thrive a constant force in my life. The trees, their branches, their leaves in foliage rich green, seemed to feel the same.
So what better way to step into the new, than to do just that.
My new journal post for July can be read in full on my website. I talk of the feathers I’ve found, and of the way they feel significant to me.
So much of my world does… I believe it to be so, the goodness I perceive. To feel. For, what other way is there to be?
July is bright and green and I can feel the air around me urging me to breathe deep and to let in the joys it has to bring.
I need a break. In so many ways, and I am trusting in the universe to send some lovely moments my way.
I won’t just sit there waiting for them to arrive at my feet though… I’ll go out and find them.
Just as a female ghost moth found me this morning. It’s a two way journey, is life.
There for the noticing.
Ever onwards.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
Another speckled wood butterfly, and other little details that I’ve been glad to witness in the last week.
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
#thetinydetailsandthefaraways
Hello old friend ⛰️
#bennachie
#skylarks
#home
#follarule
Some pieces of my work, initially, I place for sale. To be owned by another, and placed on someone else’s wall, on someone else’s mantle.
Then, somehow, over time, I become tied to them. Their presence in my home, and the meaning behind them too great to let go.
I know that’s the give. The price to pay, in being an artist, that often, the things we love the most, happen to be the artworks we spend most time on. Feel more. Imagine more. Love more.
Many of my more recent works have memories and meaning intricately woven into them. As is the way, I think, during the span of life… we feel things more deeply. It’s a gift, I think, with time passing. We are lucky to have that given to us.
I always create artworks which I feel a sense of. I don’t want that to change, ever.
And so, some paintings stay on my wall.
In our home.
Which is lovely. Actually.
Jen x
#scottishartist
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JOYimprinted
🪶🪶🪶
It was too hot to wear my glasses on my run yesterday. Sometimes it’s doable, but yesterday, they steamed up, so safer off than on…
Three feathers were in my path at separate points on my run. Otherwise, others also, but these caught my eye, and felt as if placed for me.
Gently laid upon pavement. The magpie feather bejewelled in quills petrol glistening. The smaller crow feathers, purple, to rich blue black. Rippled.
Gathered, and held, with my glasses in left hand for the duration of my run, and then my walk home.
Placed together with other collected plumes, to be transcribed onto paper in due course. There are many. On top of my bookshelf in our living room.
Running with feathers, is something I frequently do. I wonder, do others know me as the girl who runs with feathers? Or do they even notice I’m often holding them as I place feet to pavement, to path, as I go about my days?
The Girl Who Runs With Feathers… it has a ring about it. A call. A song.
A birdsong perhaps.
Three feathers gathered. I can’t wait to paint them, and make them truly mine.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#foundfeathers
#thegirlwhorunswithfeathers
A few glimmers in nature that I know Dad would have enjoyed.
A couple of pieces of my work, that I made about him.
Him on a boat.
Him in our Tifty garden with me.
He was a great Dad.
He still is in many ways.
🤍
#JOYimprinted
#fathersday
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#MyDad
New journal for June ready to read on my website www.jennamartinleitch.co.uk 🤍
Click the link to read!
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#JennaMartinLeitchWriter
The larks and I are like 🤞🏻 these days!
I had a very broken sleep, and did not feel like I would manage today. Yet, manage I did. Feeling all the better for it thereafter.
My path was filled with snails going about their business, low morning sun glinting through shells, and making their snail trails glint as if bejewelled.
On my final walking section, the birds were riotous in cacophony of morning hellos. Rich songs, playing out across blue skies from tree tops.
A greenfinch flew to ground before me, flying in front and landing in staccato, as if to ensure I was to follow. Rising at last and landing in section of hedge to my right. We stopped, and looked each other face to face. ‘Hiya pal!’ I said. A blink of his eye, and he flew on. 💚
And so, another 5k completed and home before 6.30am. Day 10/30 a third of the month through already.
Then up to work, a day of busy as an RVN, and of Mumming, and of life full.
To bed soon. Hoping for a better sleep, as rest is so required.
Onwards.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#getoutside
Same telegraph pole, a lovely pigeon atop this time, with another delicious cuppa, at the end of another glorious 5k walk through Balbirnie woods today.
Rain, storm clouds, warmest sun. It was a jam packed weather while, and I delighted in it.
A daily 5k routine seems to suit my soul. The fact I am doing it for a cause, for @younglivesvscancer makes it feel even more soul filling.
I began the day bleary and early today, but was so glad to tick off one Strength & Conditioning workout for the week before the day truly began.
Made small progress steps forward at my Dads house. Which in itself feels big, however small. So much tied up in the packing up of boxes.
The help of a friend, making the process by nature, more, not so much ‘enjoyable’, but something akin to that, in terms of company and conversation THROUGH the process.
Tiny steps anyway. Each one forward.
Home to sort house and home, see my cats, my children arrive home from school. Menial tasks completed, clothes washed and hung on the sunshine line.
This last while, so much has felt more than it actually is, small things smaller, as well as big things way bigger. Still I am glad they are done.
Progress is progress.
Jen x
#JOYimprinted
#JennaMartinLeitchArtist
#getoutside
#thetinydetailsandthefaraways
#progressisprogress
