Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Gretchen Jeens studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design majoring in Drawing and Painting. Dividing residence between Markham and Muskoka, she devotes her love of art to representing images of personal significance. Her focus is mainly on the experience of women, through figurative painting, but she also explores the natural world of landscape and still life. Working comfortably in oil, acrylic, watercolour, pencil, and pen, she achieves a whimsicality in the application of the chosen medium while delighting in the physical and emotional act of painting itself.

Her work has appeared in juried shows and exhibitions including those of the Ontario College of Art and Design, the Markham Group of Artists, the Society of Canadian Artists, the annual Schoolhouse Group of Artists show, the bi-annual shows of the Whitchurch-Stouffville Group of Artists, The Annual Fall Exhibition and Sale at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario, the AWOL Gallery in Toronto, and the Annual Spring Show and Sale of The Muskoka Arts and Crafts, earning the prestigious award for Best Two-Dimensional Painting. Participating for many years in the OCAD 'Whodunnit' Show and Sale, this past November a piece of her work was selected as part of the Gala Silent Auction to raise funds for the Ontario College of Art and Design.

She is currently represented by the Auburn Gallery of Fine Art, Gravenhurst, Ontario, and the Silverbridge Gallery, Bracebridge, Ontario, where the town of Muskoka has been acknowledged as a government designated art community.