Andrea Jenkins, artist and teacher
By Kathie Sampson
A man stands in a snow-melt alpine stream. It’s a clear summer’s day. He can easily see the gold river stones beneath his feet. Eucalypts tower above him. Suddenly a black cormorant appears from upriver, and flies straight past him. It’s an astonishing, wild sight, made even more thrilling by the flash of colour from a rainbow trout in the cormorant’s beak.
The man is my partner, Michael, who was determined to see that incredible moment captured forever in some kind of art work. Having never commissioned a piece before, we searched the internet for the right artist.
Turns out we needed to look no further than Shoreham.
Andrea Jenkins, 62, works in a studio next to the house she shares with husband Dave and dogs Miss Lenny and Ned. Known as Shoreham Studio 16, the space is warm and inviting. There’s long table laden with wicker, art paper, flowers and seed pods, shelves stacked with supplies, found objects, and pictures everywhere.
Although she has always been creative, Andrea very nearly didn’t end up making a living out of paint, pots and brushes.
Growing up in Lilydale in the ‘80s, her mother warned “there’s no money in art,” so Andrea pursued her love of sewing and when she finished studying fashion at RMIT, the entrepreneurial young woman opened a bridalwear business.
Andrea soon worked out that children’s clothes required less fabric, took less time to create and sold well at markets in Lilydale and Mooroolbark. Assisted by her sister whom she calls the business brains, ‘Duck Club’ grew to employ a maker and to supply retail outlets on the Mornington Peninsula and in Melbourne.
But the economic crash of 1991 meant the sisters were not getting paid and they closed the business.
Next Andrea pursued her interest in furniture restoration. She finished a French polishing course and starting working for a specialist. Along the way she had three children.
In 1997 Andrea and husband Dave relocated a Victorian weatherboard to land they’d bought in Shoreham.
Why Shoreham? “For Dave’s surfing,” she says.
Andrea prepares for an art class in her Shoreham studio.
Andrea found work locally: first in a Flinders furniture store and then as an installer for the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery - a job she held for 17 years and which she credits with teaching her a lot about art under the tutelage of curator Rod James.
More recently Andrea worked as a technician and then as a teacher at Frankston TAFE.
Despite a hectic family life and career, she created her own works of art which she exhibited at 45 Downstairs in Melbourne’s CBD and ran art classes in her studio.
These days Andrea balances teaching, art, and being beloved ‘Aya’ to her seven grandchildren who all live locally.
As well as the holiday classes she holds for primary school students, Andrea adores the longstanding friendship of her regulars, some aged into their eighties, who come to her weekly classes.
“Sometimes they want to make stuff and sometimes they don’t, and that’s ok.”
For Andrea enough is never enough though.
She recently started a monthly basket-weaving class and is experimenting with printmaking.
She writes and illustrates books for her young grandchildren, is renovating a house in San Remo and keeps a large garden.
“It’s a luxury to be able to paint,” she says.
I ask her what she thought of the cormorant commission.
“Intimidating!” she says. “How do you reach into someone’s mind?”
We love the result.
You can see Andrea’s work at https://shorehamstudio16.com/
Part of the picture that Kathie Sampson and her husband commissioned.