I'm Dusting Off My Passport!

Chateau D'Orquevaux

I’ve had a little secret I’ve been carrying all Summer. My family and lots of friends know—though last week as I was talking about it with two close friends over coffee when I realized that one of them missed the memo, opps! 🤪 I’ve been wanting to share my news on social media too, but I’ve been overthinking what and when and how to share and I’ve also been brainstorming on some fun ways to ask for support from you, my loyal community of collectors and fans of my work (thank you!!) I woke up this morning and decided that today is the day I just need to wing it, get it out there and dive right to sharing and stop overthinking.  

I have been accepted into an artist residency at Chateau D’Orquevaux in the Champagne region of France for two weeks this upcoming January. I first learned about this artist residency a few years ago from a fellow artist I follow on Instagram. Up until seeing her experience on IG, I had never considered an artist residency before, but it planted a seed in my head and I began daydreaming about the possibility. Since then I have started following several other artists that have attended residencies there as well and I plan on reaching out to all of them to get more insight about their experiences and gather some pro-tips over the next couple of months. I applied for the residency in late 2024 and got my acceptance at the end of April in the midst of my mom’s most recent hospital stay. When I applied, I took a let’s just see attitude since they are known to only accept 20% of applicants, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. As my 2025 began and things went off the rails with my mom’s health, the residency came more to the forefront of my mind as I spent day after day in a shrunken world of hospital and rehab facility walls. I promised myself that if I got in, I would go. I felt the strong need to prove to myself that there was so much more to the world then the confinement of my existence at the time. I have committed. I have pre-paid the residency to secure my spot. I am working on figuring out my flight details and any travel I will do before and after, because, why not? If I’m going to fly across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 23 years, I’m going to make it worth my while! Paris is definitely part of the plan!

Here's what I know:

• My residency is scheduled for January 12-25, 2026.
• Up to 30 artists, writers, musicians and creatives from around the world stay attend the residency together for either 2 or 3 weeks—my residency is two weeks.
• There are organized events and creative activities, but otherwise, my time is my own to create as I please.
• I’ll have my own room and my own studio space in the restored Chateau or outbuildings on the property to work on whatever I want for two weeks.
• I’ll leave behind a work that I created for their permanent collection.
• They have their own chef on the premises to feed us fabulous French food, champagne and wine—soooo looking forward to that aspect!

Here’s what I don’t know:

• The logistics of what I can bring with me as far as art supplies and how to get it there and how exactly to get myself there—I’m awaiting more information from the residency program.
• Who will be at the residency with me—I am told they provide a list of fellow creators beforehand so we can get to know each one another and our work.
• What project I want to work on while at the residency—I have so many ideas and want to have a plan but also want to give myself the freedom to let inspiration lead!

I know you all will be excited for me—I plan on sharing all about my experience both leading up to my departure, snippets from my travels and the residency itself, as well as sharing with you what I’m creating. I plan on setting aside a dedicated chunk on time for every day for journaling and sketching and I will share with you while I’m there!

From now (actually from the beginning of September) until the end of the end of October I will continue to do a daily painting project. I will also offer up a featured painting of the week from my existing work in my studio at a discounted price with the hopes of finding a forever home for some the work I have on hand already. I’ll do this every Thursday. My goal is to sell 50 of either these small daily paintings, the featured weekly painting and other paintings, with the hope of raising a minimum of $2000 for my travel costs and supplies. I will be setting aside 50% of every painting sold towards this goal ad will give you frequent updates on Instagram so you can see my progress towards my goal and cheer me on! I wish I could count every dollar from every sale, but I must account for supply costs, taxes and general business costs).  

For anyone that purchases a painting until the end of October, I plan on making a postcard style print (or a few) of my work in France that I will send to you at the end of January/beginning of Feb when I return from my trip. These will be fine art print quality prints that I will send them in envelopes to protect them during mailing, and they will include a personalized message of gratitude, postcard-style, on the back. I’ll even include a French stamp! By the end of the week I’ll also send a link where you can pre-purchase one of these (with 100% of the money earned) going towards my goal.

Please note that if you can’t afford to purchase anything from me right now, every word of encouragement and every like, follow, share, re-post and view of my work on social media helps with those mysterious social media algorithms and gives me a little boost of support.

I’m so excited to take you along on my journey to France! 

Bisous XOXO,
Jen