About Jen Kerins
Step into my studio…
I’m a professional oil painter based in Basel, Switzerland, originally from Dublin, Ireland. Through atmospheric oil and mixed media paintings that move between realism and abstraction, I explore moments of immersion in nature and the ways our inner worlds are reflected through the landscapes we inhabit.
My work is driven by experiences that pull us fully out of ourselves and into the present: moments when perception sharpens, time seems to slow, and we feel intensely connected to the world around us.
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Some moments in nature pull us completely out of ourselves and into the world around us
At its core, my work explores what it feels like to be immersed in nature, from observed real-world moments to more intuitive interpretations of memory, sensation, and atmosphere.
There are moments in nature when the usual noise of life falls away; when being deep in a forest, swimming in open water, sitting around a fire, encountering wild animals, or simply witnessing the scale and movement of a landscape makes everything else briefly disappear.
These experiences can be intense or unfamiliar, but they can also be quiet and subtle.
I’m interested in these moments of heightened aliveness and presence: experiences that shift perception, sharpen the senses, and interrupt everyday thought and routine.
The work begins with these lived experiences and the emotional impression they leave behind, rather than with fixed imagery or narrative.
I have been drawing and painting since I could first hold a crayon, and I am grateful to have grown up in a family that supported my creativity from the beginning.
While my path into becoming a full-time artist has not been entirely linear, painting has remained a constant presence throughout my life, adapting and evolving through each stage.
Before settling in Basel, I spent time travelling through Ireland with my husband in a campervan we built together, moving through landscapes that continue to shape how I see and paint the natural world.
The path to painting
Want to read more about my path to becoming an artist? Read the full story in my first blog post:
My work is created mostly with oil paint, often combined with mixed media, and currently sits between realism and abstraction. I use both figurative and more atmospheric elements to explore emotion, instinct, freedom, power, and presence within natural environments.
Rather than treating nature as a backdrop, I approach it as an active force in the work. Human and animal presence appears within it, but the focus is the relationship between inner experience and the natural world, and how each reflects and intensifies the other.
At times, nature seems charged with a heightened sense of aliveness, where perception sharpens and time feels different.
I’m interested in translating that state into painting without losing its intensity, so the work holds both recognition and emotional charge at once.
I hope my paintings preserve something of those rare moments when we feel fully present in the world and remind us of our connection to something larger than ourselves.
Living with the work
For collectors, my paintings are often experienced first through atmosphere and emotional pull rather than analysis. They tend to create an immediate sense of presence, followed by a slower discovery of structure, detail, and layering over time.
These paintings are designed to live with you. From a distance they hold mood and intensity. Up close they reveal complexity, depth, and textured surface.
Collectors often describe living with the work as an experience that changes over time, revealing different moods, details, and relationships depending on light, distance, and attention.
The intention is for each piece to remain active in a space, continuing to open up rather than becoming visually static.
For many collectors, the painting becomes less about decoration and more about a daily emotional reference point, something that reconnects them to feeling, nature, and presence within their environment.
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Discover original paintings inspired by immersion, presence, and the natural world.
Education & Exhibitions
While my work begins with lived experience and observation, it is also grounded in years of artistic practice, study, and exhibition.
My work has been shaped by both lived experience and formal training. I hold a BA in Art from IADT, and have also completed further study through the Mastery Programme with Milan Art Institute, and training with the Master Path from Rosso Art.
I have exhibited work in Dublin, including a solo exhibition at DIVA in Dún Laoghaire, and group exhibitions with Ranelagh Arts, Reynolds Gallery, Pallas Projects/Studios, and the United Arts Club.
My paintings and prints are held in private collections in Ireland, Switzerland & Internationally.
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