Jenette Coldrick Morrell is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans more than five decades, moving between painting, pottery, printmaking, textiles and mixed media. Born in Cornwall in 1952, her early encounters with artists including Isobel Atterbury Heath and Peter Lanyon helped shape a lifelong commitment to creativity, experimentation and the expressive possibilities of making.
Working from studios in Yorkshire and the Midlands, Jenette explores emotion, memory, heritage and the environment through a practice rooted in both personal experience and material enquiry. Her time at Ulster College of Art and Design in Belfast, where she was taught by artists including Neil Shawcross and David Leach, further developed her interest in painting, ceramics and hand-built processes.
Today, her work examines the relationship between the mental and physical worlds, drawing on themes of memory, inherited narratives, boundaries and connection. Fibres, marks, textures and deliberate imperfections recur throughout her mixed-media pieces, creating a visual language that feels deeply human and instinctive. In recent years, adapting her methods in response to spinal stenosis has led Jenette towards simpler, more immediate processes, bringing a renewed clarity and distinctive energy to her work.
In this interview, Jenette reflects on her early artistic influences, the evolution of her interdisciplinary practice, and the ways in which memory, materiality and lived experience continue to shape her approach to making.
Are you self-taught, or did you undertake formal artistic training?
I have been making art for over sixty years and combine formal training with a lifelong commitment to experimentation. I studied at the Ulster College of Art and Design in Belfast during the 1970s, where I was taught painting by Neil Shawcross and pottery by David Leach. Alongside this formal education, I have continued to develop my practice independently through decades of exploration across a wide range of media and disciplines.
How would you define your visual language or conceptual approach?
My work explores the relationship between the mental and the physical. I am interested in how memory, emotion, experience, and heritage leave traces upon the body and the landscape. Through simplified forms, expressive mark-making, and tactile surfaces, I seek to reveal connections between inner experience and the material world. Whether working in paint, paper, textile, or clay, recurring motifs and gestures form a thread that links one work to another.
Can you describe your creative process from conception to completion?
My process is intuitive and exploratory. I often begin with a memory, an emotional response, or a visual fragment rather than a fixed idea. Through drawing, layering, erasure, and repeated mark-making, the work gradually reveals itself. I allow materials to influence direction and meaning, responding to accidents and discoveries along the way. The final work emerges through a process of editing and refinement, where simplicity often becomes the most powerful means of expression.
Does narrative, symbolism, or storytelling play a role within your work?
Yes, although often in an indirect way. Rather than illustrating a specific story, my work invites viewers to encounter fragments of personal and collective narratives. Repeated motifs, marks, cracks, fibres, and forms can act as symbols of memory, resilience, inheritance, and transformation. The work creates space for viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations to the image or object.
Which artists have most influenced you historically or contemporarily and why?
My earliest influences were the artists I encountered as a child in Cornwall, particularly Isobel Atterbury Heath and Peter Lanyon. Watching artists at work inspired me to pursue a creative life. I remain drawn to artists who combine emotional depth with expressive simplicity and a strong connection to place, material, and lived experience. Their work demonstrated that authenticity and personal vision are more important than adherence to style or convention.
What personal, cultural, or environmental influences shape your practice?
My Cornish heritage, experiences of place, family history, and the changing landscape have all shaped my practice. Equally important are personal experiences of ageing, memory, resilience, and adaptation. Living and working between Yorkshire and the Midlands has provided contrasting environments that continue to inform my work. The natural world, particularly its cycles of growth, erosion, and renewal, frequently serves as both inspiration and metaphor.
Where is your studio based, and how does the space inform your creativity?
I work from studios in Yorkshire and the Midlands. Having access to different environments encourages reflection and experimentation. The contrast between locations allows me to observe changes in landscape, atmosphere, and rhythm, which often find their way into the work. My studio is both a workspace and an archive, where connections between past and present projects continually emerge.
Do you have any rituals or rhythms that anchor your studio practice?
Drawing and mark-making form the foundation of my practice. I work regularly and often move between media, allowing ideas to migrate from sketchbook to canvas, paper, textile, or clay. Cataloguing and revisiting earlier works has become an important part of my process, revealing recurring themes and subconscious narratives that continue to inform new work.
What bodies of work or projects are you currently developing?
I am currently developing interconnected bodies of work that examine memory, identity, ageing, and the relationship between internal and external landscapes. These include expressive figurative works on paper, mixed-media paintings, and hand-built ceramics. Recent projects have also focused on documenting and cataloguing my lifelong practice, uncovering the threads that connect decades of creative exploration.
Where can collectors encounter or acquire your work?
Collectors can encounter my work through my website, exhibitions, open studios, selected art competitions, and direct contact through my studio practice. I welcome enquiries regarding available works, commissions, and future exhibitions. My practice encompasses original paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and mixed-media pieces.
