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Jacqui Penrose is a Canberra-based artist whose practice centres on the alternative photographic technique of cyanotype printing, also known as sun printing.
A lifelong love of the colour blue first drew Penrose to cyanotypes. The process involves coating paper with a solution of iron salts, which produces rich blue images when exposed to sunlight and washed. Penrose uses the same method developed in the nineteenth century when the technique was originally introduced.
Her work is created in her home studio and garden, with many prints incorporating fresh plant material gathered from her garden or during neighbourhood walks. Penrose’s work has been included in numerous Australian group exhibitions, including Sanctuary and Into the Blue IV at Sutton Village Gallery, Life in Colour at Tyger Gallery, the Taralga Art Show, and the Boorowa Art Show.
Her work has also been featured in The Anna Atkins Tribute Journal (2024) and Alternative Photography: Art & Artists, Edition 2 (2025).
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“Cyanotypes are handmade photographs. The cyanotype process sounds deceptively easy, although mastering all the variables is a lifelong challenge. These include the strength of the sunlight, the time of day, the time of year (longer shadows are cast in winter), the opacity of the plant material, the type of paper, how the solution is mixed and how well the paper is coated. Exposure time can be from 20 seconds to many hours. The list goes on ... but the challenge is addictive, as is the feeling of working in and with nature to create something beautiful. I like to think of my artworks as a living memory of what the sun saw at a given moment in time.
“For Presence, I took on an additional variable .. the digital negative! This required patient trial and error in modifying the contrast and gamma curves of the original photos, printing onto transparencies and varying the exposure time in sunlight so that I could create the soft blues you see in my three pieces.
“Cosmos trio, showcases the stunning cosmos flowers we grow in our garden every year. Their delicate petals are juxtaposed against their vibrant colours and hardy growth, often reaching 6 foot high. I love visiting them and watching the bees and butterflies bustle about appreciatively from flower to flower.”
Jacqui Penrose, 2025.
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