Debra Reid-Jenkins

A lifelong resident of Michigan, Debra Reid-Jenkins has been a professional artist for more than 35 years. She attended Kendall School of Design where she studied illustration then transferred to Aquinas College in Grand Rapids Michigan to study fine arts. There she was classically trained in formal portraiture that stressed solid craftsmanship, drawing skills and countless hours of anatomy study.

In the mid-1980s Debra discovered plein air painting which she found to be as compelling as figurative work. The combination led to the illustration of several children’s books and magazines. The illustration work provided the opportunity to experiment with different styles of realism combined with abstraction. She continues to explore a modern aesthetic in her marine paintings by working with composition and color to create works that exist as flat planes of pattern and receding natural space simultaneously. Her paintings are influenced by a broad spectrum of art including textiles, the pictorial space of Japanese woodcuts, impressionism, and contemporary realism. Some of her heroes are Hokusai, Sorolla, Diebenkorn, Thiebaud, and Chuck Close.

Debra is a Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists and the Pastel Society of America as well as a Member of the Society of Gilders. Her work has been in ASMA’s Between the Shining Seas exhibition and the 15th National Exhibition. She placed 3rd in International Artists magazine “Seascape Competition” 2010 and is listed in “Who’s Who” in American Art magazine. Other publications include: Portrait Inspirations, Best of Oil Painting, Rockport Publishing; American Artists Art Masters; Artist magazine; Saugatuck Dunes, and Grand Rapids Visions.

Debra’s work is in private, corporate, and museum collections and she is represented by the Button Petter Gallery in Douglas, Michigan and Synchronicity Gallery in Glen Arbor, Michigan.