About

‘I am interested in creating artworks with their own life-force. Paintings that have their own glow and breathe with an uplifting contemplative energy for viewers’.

Jacquelyn Stephens is a Melbourne based artist and has been creating art before and since completing a BFA in Fine Art Majoring in Painting at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1996. Over the years she has had several successful solo and group exhibitions in commercial galleries and artists run spaces. Her paintings can be seen in many media publications and are held in private collections worldwide and recently appeared on the popular TV renovation shows 'The Block' and ‘Healthy Homes Australia’. Many of the key themes in her work have been informed by her interest in science, nature, the environment and the world of medicine (especially following a brush with death from a mysterious brain tumour in 1997, the cellular origin of which was never discovered).

‘Although my images allude to real things in the natural world, like sea-life, bioluminescent algae or pulsating atoms, these suggestions exist to act more as memory triggers for connections that reference our place in the fragile natural world’.

Jacquelyn’s paintings explore a sublime of the small and celebrate the life forces and colour energies inherent in all things microscopic, sub-atomic and aquatic. Having grown up on the cliffs of Flinders, staring into the eye of Bass Strait, she is also deeply inspired by the life-giving waters of the sea and what inhabits them. What is happening on the inside of a crashing wave on a micro and macro level? Underwater fields of magical light and ambiguous deep space. Sea-life, nudibranchs, bioluminescent organisms and miniscule single cell algae, all these universes inspire and influence the pictorial spaces and inform her paintings.

The semi-abstract paintings created by Stephens resemble microscopic images of cellular life forms and sub-atomic particles. The miniscule building blocks of every part of existence made big to express pulsating energy fields, colour vibrations, bioluminescent glows and the inherent life forces we can only imagine occur in these unseen worlds. Not only do they remind us of these miniscule worlds they are also made by a process that uses the forces of nature and random mathematics in their creation. Likewise, her compositions are allowed to grow organically using paint, earth, air, water and heat to create the ovoid and cellular forms seen in her work.

From bright and bold to subtle and peaceful, Jacquelyn creates her paintings with layers and layers of acrylic and oil paints, and glazes to craft striking depth and a magical sense of light.

Jacquelyn’s studio is on the Melbourne fringe in the Advantage Road Bayside Arts Precinct. She resides near Port Philip Bay with her husband, children and pooch. And takes daily strolls along the coast foraging for inspiration and nano-plastic particles for her work.

Her work can be viewed online here in the ‘PORTFOLIO’, ‘SHOP ART’ and 'GALLERIES & STOCKISTS' sections in the top menu.

‘Studio Life & News’ is coming soon...it is a blog where you can also catch up with studio news, exhibitions, commissions, current artwork, inspirations and sales on the blog.

Jacquelyn Stephens artworks can also be seen in other Specialized Galleries & Stockists listed in the ‘Other Galleries & Stockist’ section.

Jacquelyn hosts special open studio days which you can find out about by following her social media &/or signing up for her newsletter.

Commissions are popular and welcome for her intriguing paintings

You are also welcome to visit her studio by appointment.