Meet Jigna Patel

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jigna Patel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jigna below.

Hi Jigna , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Sometimes it feels like resilience is coded in to my DNA. I cannot take credit for it, I think I was just born this way. As long as I can remember, adversity has always incited a “can do” mindset within me. In fact, the fastest way to get me to do anything is to tell me I cannot or I will not be able to! I think it comes from being immersed in spirituality since a very young age. I practice detachment from material and human attachments, in addition to detachment from outcomes on a daily basis in my meditation practice, and I feel that this helps me look past the failures, take the lessons from them, and move on to the actions I have control over – always moving in a forward direction. I have had one type of spiritual practice or another since my earliest memories as a 3-4 year old, and I have practiced this detachment meditation since age 14, so it’s been 28 years now. It is second nature at this point that I almost walk through my day this way. So, even when not in meditation, I seem to be able to quickly assess the lesson from what went wrong, or the rejection, and just keep going with the goal in mind. This is not to say I don’t have moments where I think about it for a little while, but never more than a day. I find dwelling on things that didn’t go according to plan creates an inner turmoil I do not like the feeling of. It seems counterproductive to creating joy within, which is always my goal.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My path to painting has been deeply shaped by nature and it’s connection to spirituality. I was raised in England, where I first explored art academically through Art and Textile Design coursework during my GCSE studies. Just before completing the three-year coursework, I moved to Houston, TX and continued to paint through high school classes. I ultimately chose a career in clinical pharmacy for my post graduate work and completed a pharmacy residency after that. Painting took a back seat, but creativity in some form has always been a part of me. After sixteen years of clinical pharmacy practice in organ transplant and critical care, including eight of those years painting part-time for collectors locally, and a few around the world, I transitioned fully into art—channeling my healing energy through canvas instead of medicine.

My return to painting began as a creative outlet after my second child started sleeping through the night and soon evolved into a passion for mixed media, including resin, texture, inks, and oils. Today, my work is rooted in Organic Abstract Expressionism and guided by a desire to inspire, empower, and uplift the viewer through color, texture, and movement. I find that the journey to something great is found in the steps we take to get there. For me, this journey was not so straightforward. As a full-time ICU pharmacist, married and with 2 little children, it was nearly impossible for me to work on learning the business and marketing aspects of creating a career in Art. I painted and sold enough to keep creating, but not enough to quit my pharmacy work. I knew in order to make this a career, I would have to have more time at home. Given that clinical pharmacy is extremely demanding in that keeping up with medical literature after work is a crucial part of giving my patients the best possible care, I had to make the difficult decision to give up my career as a pharmacist altogether. The very first thing I did was learn how to invest my money and make it go a long way, and I’m so thankful that I did. This alone has supported my lifestyle for the past 3 years, while I invested heavily in learning the skills I needed to go from simply painting to building a business.

My art is an offering—born from a sacred place where emotion, energy, and spirit converge. My process is a deeply spiritual one – one that begins with meditation, and allowing divine creative flow to speak it’s message on to the canvas through my hands. In the language of Organic Abstract Expressionism, I paint intuitively to express the unseen: messages of hope, resilience, empowerment, and love. Guided by my spiritual journey and the rhythms of nature, each piece unfolds in layers of texture, fluid movement, and light—enforcing themes of cycles of renewal, transformation, and inner awakening. Using diverse materials and unconventional tools, I push the boundaries of flow and depth to reflect my lifelong mantra: always look for the glimmers and light in life. These paintings are portals—for reflection, upliftment and soulful connection with something greater.

The most exciting thing about my journey is the lives that my work has touched. I truly believe that these divine message that come through me, find the person they are meant for, and when that happens, it’s truly magical. I love the idea that a stranger somewhere in the world who does not know me, is moved by something that was created through me from a sacred place within my little studio in Illinois!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The most important first step of my art journey was defining what success meant to me. It is not the typical idea of a successful artist that most others might have. I want my work to be able to create empowerment and resilience on a wall within people’s homes – a sort of motivational speaker available to them at all times, reminding them of their power, and I would like to connect with my clients on a personal level. This is not to say my goal is to stay small, but more so that my goal is not lose the soul of my work in order to “make it big”. So I recommend anyone looking to be a successful artist, first define what that means to you. Every artist has their own idea of what they want out of their career. Once you know this, the most impactful thing is to find and invest in a mentor whose career is where you want yours to be 5 years from now. For me, this was a game changer. I knew how to paint but being trained as a clinical pharmacist meant I never took a business or marketing class. Being able to paint, is not what leads to having an art business. A mentor can help you think and act in the way you need to in order to get where they are, because they already did it.

The second thing that was very helpful was taking some classes. The technicalities of painting need to be learned and perfected so if you do not have formal training in fine art, then taking classes to learn new skills, and investing in your education becomes crucial. This will help you make art that is more attractive to the viewer based on some very specific principles, for example, values, color, design and composition.

Lastly, and likely the most important aspect is your mindset. It is a lonely journey, and many times, it is easy to give up after a few (or a few years of) rejections or emails that do not get replies. Do not take it personally to you or your art. Just because you haven’t been “discovered” yet, does not mean you are not a good artist, or that your art is not good. You have to just know that if you have been led to this path, you are meant to be here, and that you will make it to your goal one day, as long as you do not give up. However, do not take this to mean you cannot do anything about it either. If you are getting rejected for displaying your work at local businesses, or galleries or art fairs, try to focus on where you are being led in your work. Allow your art to evolve if it is not the kind of art you feel you are supposed to make. This will help you naturally gravitate towards the art that you are meant to make. As you get closer to the most authentic art that comes out of you and nobody else, people will also start to notice. Stay focused on the goal and never forget why you started creating in the first place!

There is no exact path to success, but the road will primarily depend on the first two paragraphs of this answer, and the outcome will depend on the third. For each goal there is a different road, and you want to take the road that others have taken to get to where you want to go. How far you walk will be determined by how strong your will power and “why” is!

How would you describe your ideal client?

My ideal client is anyone who is a seeker of stillness or grounding. Many of my clients find peace and perspective in nature. They travel to mountains and hiking trails often because the mountains, skies, and rivers remind them of resilience, beauty, and belonging. They’re drawn to my landscapes because they feel a reconnection to nature, and it’s purity and timelessness. Some of my clients have also been through some trauma or emotional, spiritual, or personal event that makes them now search for beauty that helps them heal, slow down, and reconnect with themselves. They’re drawn to art that feels soulful and intentional — not just decorative, but transformative.

I am so thankful that my work has connected me with so many of these wonderful humans and I can’t wait to meet more. This is also why collaborating with interior designers and stagers are an important part of my work. They skillfully create spaces of sanctuaries for their clients, and we know what an enormous psychological impact that living and working spaces have on people. We also know that original art has a deep impact on emotional centers of the brain and for that reason, these collaborations help people transform their lives through a space designed specifically for the way their brain works, and artwork that perfectly complements that space, while also reminding them of their own power and resilience, Giving people hope and empowering them to live a more authentic life with awareness is so rewarding for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jignapatelartstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jignapatelartstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theartofempowermentbyjignapatelartstudio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jignapatelartstudio
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jignapatelartstudio

Image Credits

Katie O’Brien Photography