This year I began a new body of work exploring visual snow disorder a little more and produced several works based on the dancing colours and shapes I see at night. Hopefully it will help raise awareness of the condition. So if you are finding this post by searching for visual snow, hi, I'm Jennifer and I'm an artist and designer based in Brisbane, Australia. I've had visual snow all my life. Some of my earliest childhood memories are watching the kaleidoscopic patterns of colourful dots at night to go to sleep. It’s all I’ve known.

If it wasn’t for a conversation in my early 20s I’d probably never have known how I see isn’t considered ‘normal’. I had a slight headache, someone asked if I was ok and I replied “the dots are a bit intense today”. That led to finding out the entire office didn't see dots! So when I got home I rang my mother and yes she could see the dots. I asked my dad, he didn’t know what we were talking about. I rang my sister and she didn’t know either. I rang my brother - yeah the dots what about them?! So at least I knew I wasn’t going mad which was lucky becasue when I mentioned it to a doctor they advised me not to tell people I was 'seeing things'! It also led to issues at work being a designer at the time. "How can you say that colour is ok if you see dots everywhere?" So I stopped trying to find out more.

When my son came along in 2013 I had renewed interest in finding out what it was. For me lack of sleep makes visual snow symptoms far more intense and nothing like a new baby for sleep deprivation! It tuned out by then people actually knew what it was and it had a name.

Ever since I was a child I had painted what I saw - colourful dots and lots of pattern in my art. Today my work is focused on pattern and visual perception. I paint very decorative abstracts with circles, dots and other patterns. I often refer to this as abstract pointillism. I distort photography by weaving images together and often end up with a lot of kaleidoscopic pieces. Being born with VS I am very used to the symptoms. I think you learnt to look through it a bit more growing up with it. Although some days it can be difficult I like to think of it as a hidden beauty only a few of us can see. 

I have started a facebook group for visual snow artists, creatives, designers so if you would like to join in you can find it here: visual snow artists on facebook.

You can view the all current desert landscape work here

Several paintings have been released as part of my Variegated collection looking at organic patterns found at the microscopic level in leaves. Using a soft white wax over board allows for the beautiful natural wood grain to show through. Finished on top with white detail and a scattering of cut paper in a mix of metallics and neutral tones.

The calm, muted colours, focus on natural materials and organic shapes creates a Japandi style aesthetic.  Japandi being a hybrid of Japanese and Scandinavian design, zen meets hygge if you like. At the heart of these works is the idea of embracing simplicity and celebrating the beauty of imperfections in nature, a core belief of wabi-sabi. ​

You can view the whole set of new works currently under 'latest collection'

I've been continuing to create abstract landscapes pieces suggestive of fields seen from the air, or topographical maps, using the language of lines and dashes I've been building up in my work. Four new paintings have been recently released in this body of work.

Unyielding I and II, shown above, have sold but please contact me if you would like to discuss a commission.

Classic blue is the colour for 2020, according to Pantone. Blue and white never goes out of style and I have to say I'm a big fan of the combination. In fact you might think blue is my favourite colour - after all I created blue artwork almost exclusively for over 5years! (My favourite colour is actually turquoise.) Still, blue is such a lovely shade to work with for art and always popular.

Chinoiserie is also set to be a 2020 trend, another aesthetic I've enjoyed playing with in recent years. So there is plenty to choose from in the online shop right now to keep you on trend for 2020 interior design! Wall art prints and original paintings in beautiful blue tones.