Jennifer Hunter

“I always liked exploring and wish I could travel back to historical times in American history to experience life as it was. Understanding where we have come from, and how we got here, and how others lived connects me to the past and my place in the history of our times. Maybe it’s my love of horses drawing me back in to the days when horses were part of living.”

~ Jennifer Hunter

Nationally recognized award winning artist, Jennifer Hunter, is known for her sensitive storytelling of American history through her art work and for the quality of light and rich luminous color of her paintings in both watercolor and oil. Hunter finds that her working knowledge of the use of transparency in watercolor enhances her oil painting techniques; and working in oil allows for experimentation with textured surfaces using both transparency and opacity of paint to give life to her work. She wants others to feel like they are actually visiting another time or place and experiencing life during years past when they view her art work. Favorite subjects include the stories of the people of the American West, past and present. In 2018, she was invited to have a solo show of her watercolors, oils, and drawings at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas. The video page on this website has recorded video of the talk she gave about her work at the Museum, and there are a few other videos about the trip and her stories behind the paintings.

She was encouraged to pursue a scientific career and earned a biology degree, but after working at a university in biological research, she left the lab and earned a fine art degree from the American Academy of Art. Having studied functional comparative anatomy in the sciences and human anatomy of form in art school gives her a unique understanding of the motion of a running horse and the physical build of the people she paints. Jennifer Hunter studied classical painting at the prestigious American Academy of Art. While a student at American Academy, Jennifer had a seascape accepted into the first Arts for the Parks competition which was later shown at the Smithsonian. Her oil, “Acadian Coast” was selected from among 2706 unsigned original paintings of National Parks for the show and was also published in the first Arts for the Parks calendar. She was selected for the Arts for the Parks top 200 in a later year with a watercolor painting of muleskinners in the Grand Canyon.

Hunter researches her subjects in historical archives and with photography sessions on western ranches with pioneers, cowboys, frontiersman and Native Americans as her models. She has crossed Nebraska several times in a covered wagon, and she has painted from the experience. She enjoys trail riding with her paint horse, Chester, and working with horses gives Hunter a feel for accuracy in equine art. She learned how to drive in a covered wagon with some ranchers and four mules and she observes some “wild” horse behavior with a few adopted mustangs owned by another family member. All of that lends authenticity to her work in addition to learning from living history re-enactors who appear in her paintings. She enjoys time with her horse and he appears in some of the videos on this website. Owning a horse helps in creating historical paintings. She also owns a historic western cavalry saddle and headstall.

Jennifer Hunter has earned signature status with the Western Colorado Watercolor Society, the Academic Artists’ Association, Women Artists of the West, and American Plains Artists. She is an associate member of Oil Painters of America, Transparent Watercolor Society of America, and American Plains Artists.  She is a graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago and has studied under many celebrated master artists. Having known Richard Schmid since her art school days, she later participated in an event that he founded to support a local fire department.

During one of the covered wagon train adventures, she created a documentary that aired on community access television in 1994. In 2011, she was an in studio guest on the live talk show “Colorado & Company” and shared her experiences with her paintings on Denver’s NBC affiliate station, KUSA. She was interviewed about her art and travels by covered wagon in conjunction with participation in the Richard Schmid Fine Art auction to benefit a local Colorado volunteer fire department.

She was chosen for an artist residency at Rocky Mountain National Park and has a painting of the Park’s historic 1915 dedication in their permanent collection. Her works have been exhibited in many prestigious juried national competitions including Arts for the Parks, Transparent Watercolor Society of America, Oil Painters of America, Women Artists of the West, the “Rockies West” (Western Colorado Watercolor Society), Art of the Plains (American Plains Artists), Academic Artists’ Association, Watercolor West, Watercolor Art Society Houston International (WAS-H) Adirondacks Exhibition of American watercolors, the Bosque Art Classic, several shows at the Museum of Western Art, Plein Air Artists Colorado, and the Richard Schmid Fine Art Auction.

Her paintings were featured in an editorial in the May, 1990 issue of Western Horseman Magazine. She was juried into signature membership in the Western Colorado Watercolor Society, the Academic Artist’s Association and Watercolor West. She is a juried associate member of Women Artists of the West. Her work has also been published in advertising in Art of the West and Southwest Art Magazines. The Estes Park newspaper, the “Trail Gazette” did a feature story on Jennifer when she donated an historical painting of Rocky Mountain National at the Park’s actual site of the dedication from 1915.

Jennifer’s works are included in the collections of former President, Jimmy Carter, Michael Martin Murphey and John Denver.

Jennifer had a solo show at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center illustrating the Colorado Plateau region with images of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, wildlife and cowboys working cattle. Her work has also been exhibited at the Phippen Museum of Western Art. In 2015, she was invited to the inaugural Traveling the West Exhibition at Southwest Gallery in Dallas, TX. In June 2018, she was invited to have a solo show at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas. On the video page, you can find the recording of her talk at the museum and videos about the show.

While a student at American Academy, Jennifer studied under the legendary drawing instructor, Bill Parks along with her well known classmates, Nancy Guzik, Rose Frantzen, Tim Allen Lawson, Dan Gerhartz, Eric Weigart, and Scott Burdick. She also studied oil painting, and watercolor painting with Irving Shapiro. Since art school, she has painted with Richard Schmid at the Palette & Chisel and taken watercolor workshops with Nita Engle, Morris Shubin and Dong Kingman.

Recently, she was having difficulty controlling her brush while painting. A ruptured disc in her spine and bone spurs were compressing her spinal cord and causing pain and affecting her hand coordination. A gifted surgeon at Mayo Clinic operated and gave her back her artistic gift. It took some rehab to regain her lost muscles and stamina. In gratitude for his help, after she recovered, she painted his portrait as a watercolor in front of an historic building at Mayo Clinic and presented it to him as a gift. Here is a video of the creation of this portrait, “Dr. Jeremy Lee Fogelson of Mayo Clinic”