CBS artist works to ‘bring the natural world inside’

By Olivia Bradbury/Local Journalism Initiatives Reporter

Jennifer Cake decided to become an artist after winning a drawing competition in primary school.

Now the Topsail-based artist is developing her own inks, pigments and dyes, drawn from the flora and fauna of the landscape around her.

The money for her latest project comes in part from a grant from Arts NL. She intends to hold a workshop afterwards to share her discoveries and techniques with anyone who is interested in creating their own inks and dyes from the world around them.

The mother of two and wife of fellow visual artist Stephen Evans often involves her family in her work and gathering of material.

“Art and design were tools I used to express myself and to ease anxiety in my childhood years,” said Cake. “I then went on to pursue a creative life and formal training once I finished high school, while also travelling through Europe, spending time in Toronto and India, and meeting other artists and creatives along the way.”

She received a diploma in graphic communications from the College of the North Atlantic in 2006, trained in the visual arts program at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus from 2011 to 2013, and took the Textile, Craft & Apparel Design program at CNA in 2016.

An interdisciplinary artist, Cake’s mediums include drawings, paintings, and collages. Nature is her primary muse. She also works as a yoga teacher and reiki practitioner.

“I capture the landscape using simple shapes and colours,” she said. “I enjoy the outdoor experience of collecting and the aroma of organic materials in the dye pot. I dye cotton, linen, and silk for mixed media work, cloth, or wearable items… My work also involves creating community through creativity, movement, and meditation.”

Cake has worked in art organizations and education for more than 14 years. She worked with the Eastern Edge Gallery in downtown St. John’s and taught art classes at the Anna Templeton Centre and later worked in the gallery at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most recently she worked as an instructional assistant in the Textile & Apparel Design program at CNA, where she said she learned a lot from the instructors.

During her career, Cake has been involved in a number of group exhibitions and shows. In 2021, she went on a family artist residency at the Union House Arts Centre in Port Union. Pregnant with her second child at the time, she explored and painted the local landscape with her partner and her eldest son. In 2024, she completed a program through the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs to build her own business.

“Through this experience I have also been selling naturally dyed products as well as teaching workshops to youths and adults which focus on yoga as well as eco-printing in outdoors spaces,” she said.

Cake intends to use the funding from the ArtsNL grant to create a visual record of time spent with the local landscape and the ritual of changing seasons drawn from foraging and learning about the plants in her adopted community of Topsail, CBS. The works will be mixed media on wood and canvas and include hand-dyed textiles and involve natural dyes and pigments foraged from the area.

“This series will bring the natural world inside,” said Cake. “In this regard, I would like to explore the potential color palette derived from the plant life around my home. Natural dye is derived from plants, leaves, flowers, roots, bark, lichens, mushrooms, and other sources. Dyes and pigments can be stored in the freezer and at different stages in the dyeing process. Fabric can be mordanted and dried or frozen to be used in later dye batches.”

Cake’s foraging occurs when she is walking or hiking to remote areas, collecting plants, and returning to the studio where she uses an outdoor stove to boil them and extract colour, pigment, and dye.

“This will be a learning experience for me as I experiment with creating pigments to be mixed with mediums and used on canvas and board,” she said.

Cake said artists and foragers such as herself are growing more interested in such processes, which predate the use of chemicals to produce colour. The practice resonates with the increasing awareness of ecological issues.

“This is of great importance, as I believe that other artists feel as I do and are becoming interested in these mindful and necessary color cultivation practices,” she said. “I intend to host a workshop to bring interested family participants along for an outdoor day of natural dye and eco-printing in Conception Bay South, in conjunction with an exhibition space to exhibit the results of this project.”

Cake said she is grateful to the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council for the funding “for this opportunity.”

One of Jennifer Cake’s landscapes, a work of shades and shadow and light