Art comes in many forms for Moore

Artist creates using watercolor, pastels, knitting

Jennifer Moore puts color in just about anything she does.

It blends into her watercolors, pops up in her pastels, winds through her knit sweaters.

She has done watercolor for five years.

“When I first started, I was with the garden club and Sandy Rosson was having us mess around with watercolors, so I went and bought all the stuff,” she said.

Moore developed her ability by painting watercolor postcards for her mother, who was dealing with Parkinson’s Disease.

“I would just mail them every other day, just as something fun for her,” Moore said. “All of this upped my game and helped me develop. That was just a good learning technique on a small scale.”

By cathy Spaulding • Photos by chriS cuMMingS

Her first cards were simple, such as an almost childlike snowman picture. The cards got more detail and depth as she did more. A painting of Christmas ornaments shows shading and glow. She became skilled enough to win awards for her art. A watercolor she did of her daughter, Arden, took first place in the 2019 Muskogee Area Art

Guild contest. A landscape with clouds took an honorable mention in 2021. Another painting placed second in 2021. It features her husband and son chatting at the Kitchen 324 restaurant in Oklahoma City.

ABOVE: A watercolor

Jennifer Moore did of her daughter placed first in a recent art show.

LEFT: Jennifer Moore knitted an array of wraps, stockings and sweaters using a variety of yarns and patterns.

Jennifer Moore traces her love of painting to cards she painted for her mother. She said she painted and sent a different one every other day “as just something fun for her.”

“I took the photo and thought it would be fun to do the glass and windows and all the reflections,” she said.

Moore paints all sorts of subjects. One painting features a closeup of her hands cutting an apple. The fruit reflects in the knife blade. Another painting shows her makeup table. The black fingernail polish on her hand contrasts with the red lipstick she holds.

Her watercolors have a depth more likely seen in oil paintings.

“I probably don’t use watercolor in the correct way,” she said. “It’s usually not as intense. It’s usually very kind of seethrough and watery. I use a lot of layers and a lot of paint. I will build up and build up and build up.”

She said her watercolor style “kind of evolved just from playing around.”

Meanwhile, Moore’s pastels, an art she learned from area artist Patty Bradley, also have depth and color.

“With pastels, you get right to the color,” Moore said. “You have a stick for every single color. You can blend, but you don’t have to. You get really immediate results, as far as color.”

Unfortunately, pastel is easy to smudge and can come off the paper if someone just touches it, she said.

Moore majored in art history and graphic art at the Oklahoma State University.

She said she has to undo some of the things she learned in graphic design when she creates art with her hands. Painting is a looser medium.

“The graphic design makes me very tight in my art, not very loose,” she said. “That’s something I try to work on. I have not succeeded yet.”

Moore now puts color into knitting, which she picked up several years ago.

“When Covid hit, I started watching YouTube videos and just went down the rabbit hole and became obsessed,” she said. A checkerboard sweater with alternating pink and rainbow squares proved hard, Moore said.

“By the time I was finished, I really wasn’t fond of it just because it caused me so much heartache,” she said. “Now, it’s one of my favorites. It’s soft.”

Yarns have different levels of softness.

A loosely-knit navy sweater maid of mohair and silk is especially soft. A patterned blue sweater made with Icelandic wool is not soft at all.

“I’ve never worn it, because it’s super itchy,” she said. “It could work as a coat.”

Moore said knitting is more mobile than watercolor. She keeps her yarn and projects in baskets, so she can knit almost anywhere. She especially likes to knit while watching TV with her husband in the den.

“This gives me satisfaction of doing something, and we can hang out together and its quiet,” she said. “I’m normally in my pajamas.”

Each sweater takes about two months to knit, she said.

“It’s not something I can just whip out.”

A unique sweater features rainbow colors alternating with black. It came from the company Knit Collage that hires women in India who produce wool yarn with sequins, yarn and other items woven in.

“The yarn is very nubby and thick and thin,” she said.

Moore also knitted a Christmas stocking for her son’s fiance’. However, said she’s not fond of knitting regular socks.

“Needles are so tiny, they hurt my hand,” she said.

A current project is another sweater.

“Kind of sweatshirty,” she said. “It’s just plain soft wool, Italian.”

The patterns are good about having detailed measurements. Some allow “ease” to fit loosely. Others have “negative ease” to fit tight.

She looks forward to using other yarns.

“Cashmere would be luscious, maybe for mittens or something,” she said. “There are so many out there.”