About

Jen Dees has been drawing and painting since childhood.  Born and raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan, she developed a love of art and of nature early in life.  As a child, she spent hours catching snakes, learning about birds, and milking goats on her aunt’s subsistence farm.  

Jen Dees studied art at UC Berkeley, and when not studying, she made time for hitchhiking, traveling through Europe, and working as a night security guard in San Francisco’s financial district.  After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology, she went on to teach art to children of all ages.  At twenty-one, she married the love of her life and started a family, and now homeschools their four children.  Being a homeschool mom and wife are Jen Dees’ greatest passions and are among her deepest life commitments.  

Plein air painting has become a way of  life, as she takes paint supplies on nature hikes, trips to the beach with friends, and road trips around the Southwestern US.  Jen Dees writes about art, nature, and homeschooling for Wild and Free magazine.  Her favorites artists include Richard Diebenkorn, Edouard Vuillard, Gustave Caillebotte, and Edward Hopper.