An acute observer of the continual change in the natural world, she took light and reflection, growth and decay, beaches and tides, pebbles and stones, clouds and shadows and manipulated them to capture a unique view of her surroundings.
In addition to pen and ink, pencil, oils, watercolours, and pastels, a series of commissions enabled her to employ egg tempera murals, architectural designs, and industrial enamelling techniques.
In the words of lifelong friend Duncan Smith: "Cowern took an ancient craft, pushed it in thrilling new directions and gave us contemporary pieces of the highest order.
[1] In 1965, Jenny won a David Murray travelling scholarship to paint landscape, and used the opportunity to visit Cumbria where Raymond's mother owned a row of cottages at Langrigg, near Aspatria.
While making the cottages habitable, Cowern took short-term teaching jobs at art colleges in Newcastle and Carlisle and began to take an artistic interest in the everyday building structures and materials that surrounded her non-art work.
[2] In 1979, Cowern visited a felt exhibition at Abbot Hall, Kendal and bought the accompanying book, written by Mary Burkett, entitled 'The Art of the Feltmaker'.
"[4] Cowern did not have to travel far for inspiration, the diversity of the skies over the Solway Firth exploded outside her front door, In 1981, she gave the following explanation to the readers of Crafts Magazine.
[7] Cowern returned to the media of enamel six years later when she received a commission to design and construct a set of murals for the Accident and Emergency Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead.
[8] After the success of her Sky Felt hangings, Cowern began to expand and develop the media, taking inspiration from the natural elements found in her immediate surroundings.
In 1996 she received an award from the Northern Arts Board and Cumbria County Council, which allowed her to produce a body of work inspired by the Solway Coast on the Cumbrian side.
Not satisfied with encapsulating the changing facets of the beach and the tide at Allonby, she moved down the coast to sketch, paint and felt the sandstone rocks below the Roman Fort at Maryport.
[11] After completing a commission to decorate a Summer House on the shore of Windermere, Cowern continued with the theme and produced a body of work centred on her own conservatory, where she contrasted the wooden-glazed structure, the hanging vines, and spectacular floral displays with decaying compost.