Jenny Croom is an Australian contemporary realist artist based in Melbourne’s Bayside area, close to the beaches of Port Phillip Bay and within easy reach of the Dandenong Ranges.
For much of her life she has painted privately while exhibiting in local shows, earning attention, awards and recognition for her work. She had regular openings at Ryazanoff Gallery in Albert Park, Melbourne where her paintings found a wide and engaged following.
In 2025 she was invited to apply and was accepted for the televised competition ‘Portrait Artist of the Year Australia’, further acknowledging her growing reputation in contemporary portraiture.
Hi, I’m Jenny, and I paint people, but it wasn’t always this way.
In the late 1970s I began more than two decades of landscape painting in oils. I painted moody skies and bright summer landscapes, working alone on country roads. I painted at beaches with friends where water was bluer than the sky. For a time, I studied under Lance McNeill, a rigorous tonal realist whose weekly classes still influence the work I do today.
Around 2006 I discovered the vibrant world of acrylics, and with it, a completely new direction. The shift was dramatic; away from traditional landscapes and into bold, stylized abstraction. From landscapes to people via a riot of colour and form.
By 2009 that energy evolved again. I moved away from the rush of big shapes and bright colours towards something quieter; more nuance, more story and a growing fascination with the human face. Stylized yet emotive.
Around 2015 I fell in love with the challenge of creating faces with more realism, capturing subtle expressions to convey inner worlds, and placing them in narrative settings.
In recent years, the pursuit of painting closer to realism has been fascinating. I’ve painted believable people in evocative contexts, hinting at untold stories
But my greatest challenge, and my greatest joy, has become portraiture, whether from life or from photographs. Portraits move me like no other paintings. They feel significant, demanding, and are therefore deeply rewarding.
It is a particular privilege when someone allows me to paint them. Portraiture feels like the most important work I do.
Artist Statement
My practice sits between the exhilarating chaos of intuitive brushwork and the delicate control required to place the highlight on an eye. Each painting is created with curiosity and delight, coaxing a face with feeling and presence onto the canvas.
My work explores what it is to be human in all its quiet nuance, and unapologetic boldness.
Some paintings are portraits of real people, where I hope a viewer can glimpse something of their inner world; the sparkle in the eyes, hints of what they love, fragments of their story. Others paintings are of faces from memory and imagination, attempts to express something universal and recognisable.
I paint on canvas or wooden panels. Surfaces can be so smooth that oil paint will mimic the cheek of a child, or textured and layered so the work has luscious physical presence as well as an image to ponder.
For me, a painting is successful when it evokes a feeling, a recognition of mood that resonates, perhaps even like a a memory the viewer didn’t know they had.
Awards and Acknowledgements
2025 – Winner of Portrait Artist of the Year, Australia 2025
2017 – Camberwell Art Show Judges Special Award
2016 – Oak Hill Gallery Directors Award
2016 – Derinya Exhibition Best Modern
2015 – Bayside Art Show Best Painting to $600
2014 – Derinya Art Show ‘Postcards’ Award
2013 – Bayside Art Show Best Pastel/Acrylic
2009 – McClelland Guild of Artists Best in Show
2009 – McClelland Guild of Artists Biennial Award – Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Prize
2009 – McClelland Guild of Artists Best Modern/Contemporary
2008 – St Kevin’s College Art Show Best Modern Painting
2006 – Rotary Altona Art Show Acquisitive Prize
2006 – St Frances Xavier Art Show Best Work Under $1000
2006 – Dromana Art Show Best Oil or Acrylic
Landscapes
2003 – McClelland Gallery 21st Anniversary Exhibition First Place Oils
2003 – Frankston High School Inaugural Best Local Scene
2003 – Sherbrooke Art Society “Streeton Award”
2003 – Emerald Art Society Best Work in Oils
2003 – Bentleigh Art Exhibition Award of Excellence
2001 – Bentleigh Art Exhibition Award of Excellence
1996 – Royal Canberra Show First Prize
1996 – Royal Canberra Show Third Prize
1995 – St Leonard’s College Best 9×5” Work Henderson and Lodge Acquisition Prize
1994 – McClelland Build of Artists Best Oil Award
1993 – McClelland Guild of Artists Oil Painting Award
1992 – McClelland Guild of Artists Best Oil Award
Highly Commended
2014 – Flinders Art Show
2014 – Knox Art Show
2013 – Knox Art Show
2013 – McClelland Guild of Artists
2004? MSWPS Lesley Sinclair Memorial Landscape Prize
2003? MSWPS Annie Davison Oliver Award
2003 – Knox Art Exhibition Best Oil 2016 – Hobson’s Bay Art Show