Jenny Kitchener’s prints Family: Psittacidae (parrots) and Family: Meliphagidae (honeyeaters) are artworks held in the Parliament House Art Collections.  

Kitchener’s work aims to highlight the importance and decline in populations of insects and birds that pollinate, plants and are therefore crucial to the ongoing biodiversity of the planet. The work uses silhouettes to highlight the delicacy of Australia’s flora and fauna such as eucalyptus leaves and native bees. There is a bell-like shape surrounding the birds, almost as if a specimen jar had been placed over them so the observer might catch a closer look.¹  

Kitchener said:

I have lived on a rural property west of Kyogle, in the Northern Rivers area of NSW, for nearly forty years and on a daily basis I see and hear many of the birds, insects and plants depicted in my imagery: the sound of birdsong and the hum of insects provide a constant soundtrack to my life and work.²

Jenny Kitchener  
Jenny Kitchener (born 1955) lives and works in Kyogle in the Northern Rivers area of NSW. In 1992 she completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of New England with Honours, and in 1996 completed a Master of Arts at Southern Cross University. Kitchner works predominately with print media and has exhibited throughout Australia with twelve solo shows. Kitchener won the Border Art Prize in 2020, was awarded a National Association for the Visual Arts artist’s grant in 2017 and received a print commission by the Print Council of Australia in 2017. Her art is held in both public and private collections in Australia and overseas, including the National Gallery of Australia, the State Library of Queensland and the London Print Studios Workshop.³  

References
1. Print Council of Australia, “Seed: Jenny Kitchener”, accessed September 16, 2025. https://www.printcouncil.org.au/seed-jenny-kitchener/  
2. Ibid.  
3. Jenny Kitchener, “Biography”, accessed September 16, 2025. https://sites.google.com/site/jennykitchener/about/biography and Jenny Kitchener, “CV”, accessed September 16 2015, https://sites.google.com/site/jennykitchener/about/cv