Artists

Jennifer Lynne Crooks, born in Uitenhague in 1943, was a painter of richly textured and vibrantly coloured landscapes, inspired by her surroundings in the Eastern Cape. Crooks worked primarily in oils. She often included lush vegetation, birds and a symbolic female figure, and favoured painting imaginatively mysterious nightscapes.

Jennifer Crooks studied at Rhodes University from 1962-1965 under Professor Brian Bradshaw, obtaining a BA in Fine Arts, and an MAFA in 1981 under Professor Josua Nell. Crooks taught Art at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown, before she took up a post at the Port Elizabeth Technikon where she lectured in Clothing Design. She was a member of the Grahamstown Group, and was married to fellow Grahamstown artist, Professor Robert Brooks.

Crooks exhibited in many group exhibitions in South Africa and West Germany, including the Cape Town Triennial in 1985, 1988 and 1991, and she held three solo exhibitions in the Eastern Cape. Crook’s artworks are represented in public collections in South Africa and in private collections nationally and internationally.