We recently connected with Jenny Rowe and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jenny, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
From as early as I can remember, my parents nurtured my creativity and encourged me at every turn to explore what made me happy. My Dad has been a watercolour artist for over forty years and would come home after his day job to paint in the evening. I would sit down with him and work on whatever little project I could make up just to enjoy messing about with his paints and paint brushes. He and my Mom were always encouraging us to play and explore the arts, encourgaged me and my sister to go into art, to take art classes, and to feed our souls with creative pursuits. As a family we would attend concerts, art galleries, and the theatre, we travelled, and we were always exposed to as much creativity as possible. My parents encouraged me to explore, be creative, and to live a creative life at every turn. It has been one of the greatest things they could have done for me.
Jenny, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My Dad is a practicing artist and art educator and upon hearing him complain about the quality of his watercolour paint, we decided to create our own; a handmade watercolour paint made the traditional way. We combed old books for binder recipes from the 1600s and spent almost a year perfecting our version in order to come up with a smooth, filler-free, pigment-rich watercolour paint that gave artists bright, clear, colour every time instead of the muddy and dull washes of commercially available watercolour paint.
Traditionally, artists made their own paint. From oil to watercolour, artists sourced their pigments, and created their own binders, ensuring the quality and performance of their paint. We wanted to create a paint where quality, luminosity, and purity of colour were at the forefront, and the only way in which we knew we could achieve this was by making paint by hand.
Making paint the traditional way is labour intensive process requiring binder and pigment to be mulled on marble slabs and poured by hand. Each batch can take up to an hour, and every batch is poured in layers that require weeks to dry. Every pan of paint that comes from The Stoneground Paint Co. has spent at least two months being poured, tested, and finally cured. This approach ensures quality, smoothness, and a pigment-rich pan of paint that artists of any skill level can enjoy using.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I cannot overstate how much I love seeing a creative idea come to life. I loved studying Art History in University and seeing a work of art underway or near completion is deeply satisfying to me. One of my favourite things is seeing how artists and creatives use our watercolour and gouache paint; I am inspired by it constantly.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I was diagnosed some years ago with Multiple Scelerosis, an unpredictable disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord. Managing my symptoms day-to-day can be challenging to say the least (pain and numbness are the most common symptoms I experience), however I am grateful for supportive family, friends, and colleagues. I am able to manage the unpredicatbility of my disease by focussing on positive mental health practices and taking good care of myself. Due to the physical nature of paintmaking, there were many times early in my disease where I struggled to make paint and feel like I was contributing to the success of our company. This led us to hire and train more paintmakers and in the end we ended up growing the business more than if I had let my disease get in the way of my success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stonegroundpaint.com
- Instagram: stonegroundpaintco
Image Credits
Mark Mandi (@markmandi)