About the Artist

I feel like I've always had a creative streak just itching to get out into the world. Growing up, I spent countless hours in the local dance studio, and supplemented those hard-earned skills with voice lessons so that I could earn larger roles in school and community musical theatre productions. As a mid-career adult, my art provides an outlet to clear my mind and balance daily life as a third-generation owner of my family’s Midwest beer distribution business.

I began making encaustic art in 2016 after attending a one-day workshop taught by Elise Rugalo at Orr Street Studios in Columbia, MO. I was hooked by the process and loved how different effects could be created by layering and heating over and over. This form of painting taught me to relax and let go of my perfectionism to give the wax a chance to decide how it wants to behave.

Here I am at that very first class, learning to use a butane torch to gently fuse layers of wax:

More recently, I began making jewelry. That started in 2020 when I needed an idea for the annual handmade Christmas gift exchange with my girlfriends. The year before I'd given them encaustic paintings, so I didn't want to do the same thing. On Instagram, I stumbled onto makers using fabric and glass cabochons to make earrings and that sparked an idea! Another friend had given me expired art calendars to use as decoration and I decided to use them to make glass cabochon necklaces for my friends. They were a hit and I had extras, so I started giving them to more friends as well as my mom and sister.

When I was handing out the gifts, one friend said, "These would be even cooler if they were made from your own art." 

At first, I was taken aback, but I somehow regained my composure and responded that it was an interesting idea to explore. Just that evening, I laid eyes on some miniature watercolor doodles I'd done months ago while watching TV. They were something I'd created simply for the pleasure of creating as I'd never done anything with them. Well, I got to work with those previously forgotten doodles and made some of the very first pieces that are now on my website. 

JL Scheppers Art was birthed from a desire to make things with my hands and explore color and texture as a way to find relaxation. I consider my jewelry to be more of an artistic expression than anything else. When I make it and when I wear it, I see it as a way to express individualism and to have something special and unique. Even when I make multiple pieces from the same piece of art, each one is slightly different from the next since they're all hand-painted. 

Today I'm mostly making watercolor jewelry and encaustic paintings, but it's important to me to keep learning new techniques and exploring where my creativity takes me. Don't be surprised if I start branching out into other types of art or jewelry!

Please come follow me on Instagram where I share parts of my process, my materials, behind the scenes photos and videos, and other snippets of my life that make me the artist that I am today. I'm also on Facebook.