Jenkin was born in Paddington, London on 23 October 1892 to Mary Kate Venning and her husband Wentworth and named Dorothy Catherine Wentworth Venning.[1] She studied art at the Royal College of Art (where she was only one of three women in her cohort),[2] and while there met her husband Thomas Hugh Jenkin, who was also studying to become an artist.[1][3] The couple married in 1918 in Kingston and subsequently had two children prior to emigrating to New Zealand.[4][5] In 1922, after Thomas had gained a position as a teacher at Otago Boys' High School and also controller of the Dunedin School of Art, they emigrated to New Zealand.[5][6]
Sometime in 1925 Thomas' contract with the Dunedin School of Art was not renewed and Jenkin and he moved their family to Invercargill.[5] There Jenkin undertook commissions as well as teaching art at both the Southland Girl's High School and Gore High School.[3] She and her husband became active members of the arts community in Southland.[5] Jenkin was a member of the Otago Art Society and exhibited works at various Otago Art Society exhibitions from the late 1920s onwards.[7][8][9] In 1929 Jenkin had an artwork published in the first volume of the journal Art of New Zealand.[10] She also exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts in the 1930s.[11] She was a founding member of the Invercargill Art Society (now part of the Southland Art Society) and exhibited frequently there, specialising in still life paintings.[3] Jenkin was also involved in campaigning for a public art gallery for Invercargill.[3] She was involved in ensuring the acquisition of Anderson Park and establishing the Invercargill Art Gallery at that location.[3]
During summer holidays the Jenkin family visited Stewart Island / Rakiura and Thomas organised a summer art school there.[1] On their retirement in 1952 the Jenkin's moved to Stewart Island / Rakiura permanently,[1] building a log house that overlooked Paterson Inlet / Whaka a Te Wera,[2] and tending to an elaborate garden of rhododendrons, a cherry magnolia, kauri trees, mamaku, and many plants native to New Zealand.[2] Thomas died in 1958.[12] Around this time, at the suggestion of Cedric Smith, the curator at the Rakiura Museum, Jenkin undertook watercolour studies of Stewart Island fungi.[1] Smith sent several of these illustrations to Kew Gardens to assist with the identification of the fungi collected.[3] Jenkin had intended for a book to be published using the watercolour paintings but this did not eventuate.[5] However the Rakiura Museum did make prints as well as postcards of her watercolours and sold the same to the public,[3] many of which became popular designs for postcards.[2] Jenkin also undertook studies of Stewart Island orchids, which inspired the publication of a book on her work.[3] Many of her original botanical illustrations are now held at the Rakiura Museum.[1][3] Jenkin continued to illustrate until the 1960s, when she stopped due to her failing eyesight.[2]
In 1971 Jenkin donated one of her husband's works, a portrait of Alfred Henry O'Keeffe, to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.[13]
Jenkin lived on Stewart Island / Rakiura along for 33 years,[2] until she was 98 at which point she went to live with her daughters in Clyde.[1][6] In 1992 the Rakiura Museum created a special issue of Jenkin's paintings, to celebrate her 100th birthday.[6] She died on 13 April 1995 and is buried with her husband at Saint Johns Cemetery in Invercargill.
