Ron Jenkins was born on August 18, 1932 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and then was raised in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art throughout the academic year of 1954-1955, but increasing family responsibilities prompted him to drop his art education temporarily to go to work for a savings and loan association.

It was a job he was to hold for ten years, but in the meantime he began a correspondence course in art that ran from 1958 to 1962. He works fast, and although he will tackle any subject, birds are his favorite; his work on them goes especially fast.

In fact, he spent so little time, comparatively speaking, on the 1964 painting of canvasbacks that von the 1965-66 Federal Duck Stamp Competition that it gave him mildly embarassed pause; he had almost not submitted it at all. He has illustrated a number of stories for the Pennsylvania Game News and the Pennsylvania Angler.

His work has also appeared in the National Geographic magazine and the Modern Game Breeding magazine. In 1980, he won the third annual Montana Bird Stamp Design contest with his Whistlers'or Barrows Goldenyes, which he produced in two medium which was that of a reproduction edition and a hand colored stone lithograph edition.

In 1993, Ron was selected as the 1993 First of State for the Rhode Island Trout Conservation Stamp with his work of a brook trout during a Rhode Island caddis hatch.
Often in the gallery a client might ask or wonder how long it took for the completion of a painting by the artist. Little does the public realize the torture and turmoil encountered by every artist when they approach the immense white canvas or board. Ron and I were discussing this typical dilemma for artists one morning on the telephone. He recalled how much he enjoyed getting started on a painting and how much fun it was completing the painting. "But the middle is just terrible!"

Source:
Website of Meadowlark Gallery, 2020