Jennifer Gennari paints animals for a living. Here’s what she’s learned.

Jennifer Gennari paints animals for a living. Here’s what she’s learned.

Jennifer Gennari has built a career doing exactly what she loves — painting animals in the alla prima method, start to finish, fresh paint every time. In this interview, she gets honest about what it actually takes: the work ethic (7 days a week, 7:30am to 6pm — “it’s almost a problem”), the patience required to let your style emerge naturally rather than forcing it, and why exposing yourself to many different teachers early on is one of the smartest things a developing artist can do.

She talks about the difference between copying shapes and truly seeing your subject. About why love for what you’re painting shows up in the work in a way that technique alone never can. And about why finding your style isn’t really something you do — it’s something that happens to you, the way a signature develops over time.
Whether you paint animals, people, or something else entirely — the fundamentals she teaches transfer across all of it.

🎨 Jennifer teaches oil painting at Drawing America.
Her course Drawing America walks you through portrait painting in oils — color, values, shapes, texture, and paint application — step by step, in her own voice.
Learn more and enroll: drawingamerica.com/gennari