Founder of LCA and Honorary Member

Wendy Jennings was born and raised in Montreal, and her artistic side developed when she was in high school around the age of 17.  She had a wonderful art teacher who really inspired her.   She went out and bought her first sketch book and drawing pencils and started drawing portraits.  She would hide away in her room for hours at a time working on portraits and experimenting with different mediums such as oil and chalk pastels, charcoal and conte.  

In her twenties, Wendy attended the Museum School of Fine Arts in Montreal and during this time, she developed a free style with silk screen printing.  Her father built her a frame and she was quite successful at silk screening in an abstract way and sold several of her prints.  It was exciting to make her first sale of $75 and she sold all 5 pieces she had made. 

Life then got in the way with a marriage and raising a family.  But, once Wendy retired from the corporate world and her daughter had a family of her own,  she was able to get back into art.

For the last several years, she has been teaching watercolour, coloured pencil and graphite drawing while continuing to draw and paint subjects that challenge her.  Colour is her inspiration, and for her portraits – it’s the character or emotion she sees in the face. They come alive in her head and have stories to tell. 

Wendy has participated in numerous shows and exhibitions where meeting and talking with new people has made all these events fun and enjoyable for her.  For her family, she has created two picture books with all of her work as mementos. 

She has won numerous awards:   Two 1st place and one 2nd place at the western fair,    Five Judges Choice awards and one honorable mention.  

In the fall of 2018, Wendy became very frustrated with the long wait times to get into an art group in London.  She thought there was no reason why she couldn’t start one herself.  So, she put the word out to a few artists she knew and arranged to have a meeting to see if there was enough common interest to start one.  There was a good turn out of about 15 people.  They booked a working meeting for January of 2019.  By the end of the first meeting, they had a board of directors and a list of things they needed to accomplish.  Everyone worked hard to organize a strong club.  Wendy said they couldn’t have done it without the help of Jerry Cutting, Bill Stephens, Heather Peel, Tina Rae, Rina Bezuidenhout, Sherri Friesman and Daryl Hache.  

Within three months they had outlined the policy and procedures to run the club and each year this gets modified as we grow and change. The first LCA meeting was held in April of 2019.  Membership was just 50 members but a waiting list soon grew.  In 2023, 25 more members were added to expand our group to 75.  

Our club is one of the more active clubs in the city with partnerships with Cherryhill Mall, Western Research Centre and LHSC Children’s hospital.  We have art on display at these locations throughout the year with an annual show in November.  2024 was the first year we had workshops with the hopes of having more this year.  Wendy has been amazed at the growth in our members as the art work just keeps getting better and better.  It is wonderful to see that we are making a difference in the lives of our members as we enter our 7th year.

In January 2025, the executive committee invited Wendy to become an honorary member of LCA.  She is a distinguished individual who has contributed greatly to support the arts community and to promote artists. Without her, London Community Artists simply would not exist.

You can visit her on Facebook at  Watercolours and Pencil Portraits by Wendy  (with the pink banner) to view all her artwork. You can also find her on Instagram under Watercolours_by_Wendy.