Jen Cunningham is originally from Cambridge and moved to Ullapool eight years ago. She likes to immerse herself in the landscape by walking or running in it, as well as studying it and now drawing it. Since moving to the Highlands, she has completed an Open University degree in Natural Science and taken up art again (more or less abandoned since school). She really enjoyed some of the short practical courses and weekly drawing events on offer at UHI and ATS in Ullapool and was finally inspired/encouraged by friends in the village to embark on the Portfolio Course. Jen works part-time as an online teacher and in the Ceilidh Place bookshop, but hopes to find the time after this exhibition to continue painting and learning.

Personal statement

A big reason for moving to the area in 2018 was the croft house depicted in much of my work. It has been a place of annual retreat for me since 1996 and for my husband’s family since the 1950s. As it is inhabited only intermittently, for a week or so a year, it acts as a kind of time capsule with personal items and furniture left from year to year and reminders of previous inhabitants lingering. The sink has been in the house since the 1950s and the chair was in the building when the family took the house on. The windows were replaced recently and were the starting point for my project this term.

My work is about place, landscape, memories, history and spending time together, isolated from everyday life and close to nature.

I enjoy painting with acrylic – and occasionally oil - experimenting with colour, texture and layers of images.