Jelly Buckingham

Based between Cambridgeshire and the Suffolk coast, Jelly Buckingham’s practice is shaped by a restless curiosity and a passion for creative experimentation. Travels across more than 40 countries have fuelled a fascination with diversity in form and spirit — from the hidden movements of sea creatures to the quiet mysteries of human character.

This has led to two companion bodies of work, collectively titled Otherworlds:

Outerworlds, a series of marine-inspired paintings, alive with vibrant fish, corals, and strange, characterful creatures of the deep.

Innerworlds, a collection of surreal portraits where colour and brushwork give voice to the layered emotions, authenticity, and introspection of being human.

Each painting is at once spontaneous and considered, blending storytelling with abstraction. Themes of connection, independence, authenticity, and wonder thread throughout the work, encouraging the viewer to look deeper — into the ocean or into themselves.

Artistic background

Jelly Buckingham is a self-taught painter whose instinctive, exploratory approach brings both the natural world and the inner world vividly to life. Working primarily in acrylics on canvas, Jelly builds rhythm and texture through sweeping brushstrokes, layered outlines, and moments of impulsive mark-making. The edges of the canvas are left raw, accentuating the immediacy of process and the contrast between stark surface and living colour.

Quote

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.”

Interests

Otherworlds in paint — sea creatures and surreal portraits that invite reflection, curiosity and conversation.

Also: reading, travelling, writing, drinking copious quantities of tea, meditating, long walks on the beach, healing and creating sculptures from clay.