About Me

A native of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Jennie became interested in art, specifically drawing, as a young girl. She studied art in high school and majored in Commercial Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. She worked as a freelance artist and as artist for Addressograph, Multigraph Corp, Carolina Textile Engravers as a fabric design artist, and as a layout artist for TV Guide magazine until her marriage to the late Donald E. Martin of Marion, SC. Being the wife of a military journalist and pilot, Jennie's next fifteen years were devoted to moving with her husband around the world and raising a family of one daughter and two sons. She rarely painted, but had the good fortune of seeing and photographing many beautiful potential paintings all over the world.

In 1971 Jennie returned to North Carolina with her children and resumed her study of art at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she received her degree in fine arts in 1975. Upon graduating from UNCC, she opened a gallery, framing shop and classroom in her studio in Harrisburg, North Carolina, where she teaches classes regularly, and maintains a gallery and studio. In addition she maintains a gallery in Concord, NC. She is a member of the Cabarrus Arts Council, the Cabarrus Art Guild and the North Carolina Watercolor Society. She has had numerous one person shows in the past but now concentrates on openings in her Harrisburg and Concord galleries. She serves as a judge for many of the student and youth shows in the area. She is a past recipient of the Kokenes Award for Proficiency in Visual Arts. Her work ranges, encompassing the mediums of watercolor, pastel, ink and graphite. Her favorites are - all of the above! She has studied under regional artists such as Tom Jones, Joe Miller, and Wes Waugh, and widely known artists including Diana Khan, internationally famous oriental watercolor artist Cheng Khee Chee, and Barbara Nechis, author of "Watercolor, the Creative Experience." Jennie was also fortunate enough to study with Zolten Zsabo shortly before his death.

Jennie's work includes many subjects, such as commissioned portraits of people, homes and animals, local and regional historic buildings, florals, landscapes and seascapes. She especially enjoys subjects of nature.

Jennie and her husband, Dr. Edwin "Tommie" Tomlin, live in Harrisburg, NC. They share many interests and hobbies, among them being gardening, photography and 15 grandchildren "who are all works of art!" Two of their grandchildren are Arts Majors in college.