About Me
I’m Jenna and this my story…..
I have always loved painting and drawing from as young as I can remember. My parents will vouch for that. Every opportunity I had, the paints or crayons would be out. One of my most favourite things is buying new art materials!
My career took a different pathway to the one I thought I might have as a child. In 2007 I graduated from Cardiff School of Dentistry and have been practising as a dentist since. I suppose you could say that there are some parallels with art and dentistry, particularly when it comes to picking out an enamel shade, or building up teeth for example.
Dentistry has given me the opportunity to work overseas and travel. In 2010 I decided to join two of my friends to work in Australia for 6 months, followed by a stint of travelling around Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. It really sparked an interest in travelling and exploring for me and was an incredible experience. Travel also gives me plenty of inspiration for my artwork.
There’s no doubt that dentistry can be a stressful profession. Making art has really helped me to combat the stress of the day job. Once I’m into a piece of work all my worries dissolve and I’m completely immersed in it.
I’ve made artwork for the walls of my room in work and for other dental practices too. Check out some of my art work here.
More recently, I had an idea. I wanted to be able to share my love of art and creating with other people. Art has many benefits including improving mental wellbeing and reducing stress and anxiety. A lot of people have a belief that they aren’t creative and that they can’t paint. I think that everyone has a creative side and I would love to show people that everyone can paint. This great activity should be accessible to all that wish to try it. It’s all about loving the process.
With that in mind, I came up with the concept of fun painting workshops for groups of people, whether it be for team building events or a group of friends who just want to get together and catch up, doing something fun. I have to admit I really love a cocktail and so I combined my love of cocktails and art into a workshop where people can enjoy painting and a sip of their favourite cocktail. This is where the name “ARTinis” came from.
My mission is to use the gift of creativity to promote the importance of art in mental wellbeing in society