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San Clemente Journal

Your Artistic Friend

Dec 07, 2015 11:35AM ● By Bill Thomas

Jennifer Friend, at her easel in South San Clemente.

by Bill Thomas

According to several of her personal notes, Jennifer Friend has been painting since the early eighties, having developed a unique style incorporating character, feeling, rich color, and dramatic effects into her works. Born and raised on a cattle ranch in Missouri, and graduated in business and marketing from Southwest Missouri State University, she was always interested in art. Initially, owning, developing, and operating her own creative business including commercial art and illustration, she eventually expanded into personalized fine art.

A longtime member of the prestigious Women Artists of the West, her home is now her working exhibit center with the treasury of her many paintings displayed on the walls of every room. 
Local resident and active artist, she is married to Mike Ayer, who has served the City of San Clemente for over 30 years in a water reclamation capacity. 

As a plein air painter, Jennifer has received praise for her color choice, dramatic effects, and the transmission of strong feelings. She wants to share or inspire a story with each of her paintings, and enjoys subjects that inspire and challenge the viewer. Prices of her works range from $2,500 to $5,000, with smaller ones in the hundreds. 

Entering her living room, one sees an array of memorabilia – scrap books, newspaper and magazine articles about her artistic endeavors and recognition, cartoons, sketches, T-shirts, wooden nickels and other tokens and awards. Her back yard patio serves as her working studio featuring brushes, paints, and easels, as well as nature and plantings. The works displayed throughout her home include people, places, and things - western scenes and landscapes, deserts, mountain scenes, rocks, crags, cowboys, and people in western garb. One of her favorite subjects has been Roy Rogers.  

 Jennifer’s last name is also a key to her artistic talents. Friendship is a breeder, sharing memories, introducing new topics, emphasizing common interests, admiring beauty, providing parallelisms in life, offering  a rivalry of aim, traveling journeys together, involving laughter and love, and offering respect, confidence, and shared idealism. This is what Jennifer paints and why she cherishes her fellow art lovers. Examples of the variety of her outstanding works include the Grand Tetons, Carmel, Jackson Hole, rodeo cowboys performing, and mountain, ocean, and desert scenes.

Since 2002, she has won seven annual National Arts for the Parks awards, representing top paintings in the country submitted in that particular year. Locally, she won the Best of Show’s honors and the Mayor’s Award in San Clemente, entering her works on a yearly basis. She has also been featured in Laguna Beach’s Pageant of the Masters. Other shows have taken places in an array of locations including Dana Point; Mesquite, Nevada; Indio; La Quinta; and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Her paintings also hang in several various galleries, including Palm Springs’ Professional Golf Association, the Museums of Art in Mesquite, Nevada; and Branson and Springfield, Missouri. Collectors in such countries as Japan, Germany, Australia, England, and Switzerland own her artistic reproductions. 

Those interested in viewing Jennifers works visit www.jennifersart.com or make an appointment via (949)498-9714 or emailing [email protected]