Distinctive artist working in both oils and watercolours who employs colour emotively to convey her response to places and events
Jenny Wheatley takes her sketchbook everywhere and makes drawn and written observations of places, people, mood and atmosphere. She also paints outdoors in oil or watercolour to learn the workings of the world around her. Back in the studio she will combine her learnt knowledge of place and things to make composite paintings in oil or watercolour depending on the mood and mark she is trying to attain. The final images will hopefully convey her emotive response to the landscape, relationships, ideas and environment using a play of colour and composition to guide the viewer. She would wish an image to initially arrest the attention, but to have a much longer resonance with continued viewing and study.
Since graduating in 1981 from West Surrey College of Art and Design where she studied Fine Art Painting/Printmaking, Jenny has spent the last 30 years as a professional painter. She was one of the youngest ever members to be elected to the New English Art Club in 1983 and the Royal Watercolour Society in 1984, and has shown with them ever since.
Over her career, Jenny has been mostly recognised for her glowing and highly original sense of colour. Her forbears were immersed in theatre and film and her use and manipulation of perspective reflects this, as she enjoys guiding the viewer through her work by her placing of layers of “stage set” space and colour. Her work is characterised by a variety of strongly coloured patterns worked over the entire surface of each canvas or sheet of paper to sophisticated and playful effect.
Her subject matter is derived from her travels at home and abroad and her observations of human nature. While the viewer might see an interior of landscape, the objects and their placement often stand for situations, conversations and relationships she has observed.
Jenny's work has been shown widely in most major galleries in London and the provinces as well as in America, Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
Society Memberships
New English Art Club (NEAC)
Royal Watercolour Society (RWS)
Awards/Achievements
2013/4 Organiser of RWS exhibition for 70th anniversary of awarding of the George Cross to Malta
2001 Painting Expert on Channel Four’s Watercolour Challenge
2000 Painting Expert on Channel Four’s Watercolour Challenge
1988 Sponsored by CCA to travel through the South Seas recording the transition in outer islands from Polynesia into Melanesia
1987 Sponsored trip to Ladakh with joint British/Indian army expedition as artist recorder
1983 Winner of Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Award Canada
Exhibitions
AAF London, Singapore, Hong Kong
Athena Art Awards
British Contemporary watercolours
Chelsea Art fair 2020/21
Hunting Group Art Prize
International Contemporary Art Fair, Olympia
RA Summer Show
Royal Scottish Academy
Royal West of England Academy
Scottish Gallery
Works on Paper
One Person Shows
2020 Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold
2019 Russell Gallery, Putney
2018 Russell Gallery, Putney
2018 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2017 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2017 Jerram Gallery, Sherborne
2016 Russell Gallery, Putney
2016 Callaghan Fine Painings, Shrewsbury
2016 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2015 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2015 Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe
2014 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2014 Callaghan Fine Paintings, Shrewsbury
2013 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2013 Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall
2013 John Robertson Fine Art, Edenbridge
2012 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2012 Walker Gallery, Harrogate
2012 Russell Gallery, London
2011 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2011 John Robertson at Edenbridge, book launch exhibition
2010 Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2010 Walker Gallery, Harrogate
2010 Jerram Gallery, Sherborne
2010 Bourne gallery, Reigate
2009 LLewelyn Alexander gallery, London
2009 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2009 Gorstella Gallery, Chester
2008 LLewellyn Alexander Gallery, London
2008 Lemon Street Gallery, Cornwall
2008 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2006 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2005 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2004 Whittington Fine Art, Henley
2003 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2002 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
2000 Bourne Gallery, Reigate
Public Collections
Arthur Anderson
British American Tobacco
British Gas
Hilton Hotels
H.M. The Queen
H.M. Queen Mother
Institute of Education
John Lewis
Kent County Council
Kent University
Maltese Embassy
Maltese Government permanent Collection
Pace Petroleum
Qingdao Museum China
St. Thomas’s Hospital
