Sharryn Jenkinson

Sharryn Jenkinson is an Australian oil painter based on Victoria’s rugged Surf Coast, where vast skies, shifting weather and elemental drama of the ocean shape her artistic vision.

Known for her immersive and atmospheric skyscapes, Jenkinson creates works that invite viewers into the emotional resonance of nature – moments where light, colour and movement mirror the rhythms of human experience.

Raised on the dry, dusty, open Wimmera plains, Jenkinson grew up on a farm not far from the iconic Dimboola, on the banks of the scenic Wimmera river. As a child, she would lie for hours on these plains watching towering cloud formations roll endlessly across the panoramic sky – feeling the anticipation, the electricity of approaching storms.

Those formative experiences continue to echo through her paintings, where immense skies and shifting weather become metaphors for transformation, resilience, and renewal.

As an oil painter,  Jenkinson intuitively mixes rich colour directly onto the canvas with her hands in energetically tactile strokes, using the wet in the wet technique. 

The process is spontaneous and immersive using a high contrast palette, thick impasto highlights, she creates moments of instinctual luminosity, dramatic compositions and joyous atmospheres.

This dynamic method allows each work to retain a sense of immediacy, movement and vibrancy.

Jenkinson pursues the fleeting drama of the Australian sky – seeking to translate light into emotion,  Jenkinson paints the moment when the sky is about to change, when atmosphere holds both tension and possibility.

Jenkinson paints from her Porta Vermelha Studio in Bellbrae, Victoria. Her works are held in private collections across Australia, Europe, Asia and USA, and are exhibited in galleries across Victoria. Her painting: Clouds of Ra, received the Ocean Art award at the Queenscliff Art Prize, recognising her ability to capture the raw beauty and power of the natural world.

A blend of value, hue and confident use of colour temperature, Sharryn’s every sweeping gesture is an instinctive connection to landscape more than scenery – an emotional space viewers can step into, breathe and feel the electricity of change for themselves.