The artist was born Jennifer Hayes in Wolverhampton, one of nine children. Though showing an aptitude for art, there was no encouragement or support for her interest, and it was not until she came to Cornwall for summer work that she experienced the milieu that would eventually give full rein to her talents. 

She married local hotel chef Claude Hazel, who died when she was forty. Having three children to support, she again had little time for creativity, but by the late 1980s she had taken up the painting and sketching habit in a passionate way. With little money, she painted on all manner of objects - wood and wallpaper amongst them - and her subjects were the scenes around her in Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole.  A close friendship for twenty years with artist Rose HILTON, who employed her also as a model, reinforced her instincts to paint, and it was Rose who assisted her daughter Kate Hazel to put up an exhibition of Jennifer's paintings under the title Hidden Treasures at the Morvah Schoolhouse Gallery in February 2010.