“It is more about the process, it is a meditative practice rather than a finished product.”
Welcome to Mamamia’s art endeavour, the Voulez-Vous Project. Every week we celebrate emerging artists, designers, illustrators, creators and cats who dress like their owners (not joking). Our aim: to help the internet become a slightly more beautiful, captivating, or thought-provoking place by making art accessible.
Jordana Henry is a mark maker, and her incredibly unique paintings have helped gain her a huge instagram following.
Henry is originally from Sydney but now calls Byron Bay home. Moving there seven years ago, she completed a visual arts degree at Southern Cross University, majoring in printmaking, before turning to painting.
“After completing printmaking, I found it really hard to get hands on a press, so I taught myself to paint, I’ve never had a painting lesson in my life.”
“I think of it as mark making rather than painting, I have never thought of myself as a painter. More as a mark marker who uses paint.” Henry says.
Henry’s unique approach to painting is primarily inspired by day to day life. She makes marks based on anything from how many coffees she has had, to what novel she is reading at the time.
“I like the process of how authors write, for example Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road on typewriter on one roll of paper. I am interested in the process, which I then take into the art. It is more about the process, it is a meditative practice rather than a finished product. I never know what it is going to look like when I begin the work. ”
“My work is an intuitive response to day to day events. Whatever I see or read. A painting will often start as one thing and completely change during the time that I work on it” Henry says.
Henry also takes inspiration from the different mediums (primarily acrylics, watercolour and ink) that she works with. The process of working with elements that organically create each individual piece of work is important to her throughout her work.
“I don’t have to push it too far, it works by itself. Which is a huge thing for me. This is why I loved print making, you never know what it is going to look like when you peel back the paper. I also work other mediums, like red wine, and things like that. That way it is never set in stone, I never know how a work is going to look, it is always ends up differently than what I initially imagine.”
Henry is currently concentrating on moving into her new studio, and a collaborative exhibition set for next year.
You can read more about Henry on her website, or visit her Instagram page. Check out some of her other works in the gallery below.
Want more from Voulez-Vous?
“I just enjoy capturing women who are comfortable in their skin.”
‘When people look at my paintings, they think about their own life.’
Drawings so incredible you won’t believe they aren’t photographs.
Do you know an artist (or are YOU an artist) who creates beautiful or thought-provoking work and whom you think should be featured on Mamamia’s Voulez-Vous Project? Send an email to lizzie.marton@mamamia.com.au.