Jenny Wheatley’s new solo show is soon to open at the Russell Gallery in Putney with over 50 paintings from her latest travels and observations. In this article, she tells us how she came about these images, surrounding herself with ‘the stuff of inspiration’.
Obviously, I travel to the places I paint, and make drawings, written notes, recordings of the sounds, and colour notes, and on-site paintings of these places, but the work really begins in earnest when I get home and start to put my thoughts together.
I am lucky enough to live in a small village in a tiny cove in Cornwall where the climate is mild. Here I can grow tropical plants both outside in the sheltered garden and in my glasshouses. It is very quiet here and I built my studio upstairs in my house with views out to sea and to the garden. I planted banana palms below the studio and, when it’s warm and breezy, these palms, that have now grown to eye level with the open studio door, rustle and evoke tropical places, sounds and shapes that take me straight back to the places I have visited.
Likewise in my home, it is rather like walking through my paintings. I don’t differentiate between my work and my home life. It is all about painting, and that is probably why I often seem a bit distracted, as I am usually thinking about a composition or colour combination, atmosphere or mood while I am surrounded by people, trying to save the thought in my mind for later use.
There are objects and artefacts, materials and colours and paintings that occupy each room (not particularly arranged but just sort of present). All these bring both joy and memories as well as ideas and inspiration for paintings on a daily basis. It never ceases to amaze me how objects that I see every day can suddenly seem new and fresh and be observed in a different way as I pass them by.
I also collect images by way of drawings and photographs as well as written notes, that I reconstruct in the studio to create my ‘through-the-window paintings’; all the bits that might have been there together as well as bits that I would have liked there to be, from various positions and places along the way.
It drives an architect friend of mine mad that I will move buildings, bits of façade, add floors, etc in order to get my idea across to the viewer, but I always say that there is no point in trying to torture something that doesn’t work for me, and as the painter I can move things around at will. I try to make these composites as a way of reconstructing the atmosphere and sense of place and mood – almost a taste of my reaction to the event or time that I experienced.
I always have my sketchbook with me for notes, thoughts and drawings, as one never knows what one might see or what might turn up in the most unexpected places. I recently met a friend for coffee and came across the gardens there that had the most wonderful atmosphere, great planting and lovely topiary with very sculptural elements. Bits of it emerged quite quickly combined with creatures that I had seen and drawn in India and Egypt and parts of my garden and summerhouse as well. All this occurred when I was just going out for coffee!
Not all my paintings happen so immediately after an outing or experience. I have a bookcase where I keep my sketchbooks, and cupboards where I have printed bits of photos I have taken and papers that I have collected along the way. The Indian newspapers that I brought back from Rajasthan have the very specific smell of that area and take me right back to the streets and bustle of the place.
If I am looking for inspiration then I can rummage through these or wander in my garden with all its colour and tropical plantings, around the house or along the coast path and soon there will be lots of images and stories forming in my head. I also have stacks of art books through which I can leaf to get an idea cemented in my mind.
Increasingly I tend to work my compositions out on the canvas or paper as I go along. Acrylics and oils can be changed and altered quite easily, and I make sure that the paper I use with water-based media is heavily sized and robust, so I can lift colours as necessary, in order to make changes. I rather like the history that previous marks, shapes and textures make and the ideas that they bring into play and directions I may not have previously thought about. In this way I can create a dialogue between my thoughts and the emerging image and we can have a conversation together as the painting evolves.
I suppose that I am lucky to have the time to be able to accept that not everything will work, and I always find that the most exciting discoveries happen when something has gone disastrously wrong or slightly out of control. I remember a buyer of mine once saying that they most liked the paintings with which I had struggled, and which I had only just managed to battle into submission! He always thought that the paintings that I was ‘happiest with’ looked a little complacent. It is one of life’s conversations that I have carried with me for nearly 40 years.
The paintings in my upcoming show are all from recent trips, thoughts and observations as well as memories of experiences that have been jogged by conversations, thoughts, sounds and smells that may not have initially seemed to have related to those times and memories, but have just jogged my memory and sent my mind and therefore my paintbrush, off in a whole new direction.
Jenny’s solo exhibition ‘Stepping Out’ is at the Russell Gallery from 29 October to 21 November (Tue–Sat, 10am–5.30pm). She will be at the gallery for a private view on Thursday 29 October, 5pm–8pm.
The Russell Gallery is also taking Jenny’s work to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, 14–18 October). For free tickets, contact the Russell Gallery.
