Jenny Westbrook
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Jenny Westbrook (B.A Hons, P.G cert)
Biography and Artists Statement
Artists Statement:
I was born near Stroud Glos., and I live and have my studio in Cheltenham, I did Graphics at Northwich College of Art, Cheshire in the 1970’s and I did my Fine Art painting degree at The University of Gloucestershire graduating in 2002.
While I’m working I’m processing memories and emotions, the objects around me and the components of my everyday life end up in the work, usually in a hybrid abstracted form. I re-invent the World around me by morphing one thing into another i.e. handbag on wheels, animal house, tea pot car. What I see out of my window and in my studio, end up there – ladders, rooftops, telegraph poles and houses as do toys, brushes and objects on shelves. The music I listen to gives the work something- rhythm, energy, one abstract thing feeding another, and all of this has the indelible mark of childhood and my life experiences.
Method of Working
My work is intuitive and organic, the concept is generated through the practice, no real ideas to start off with. I work mainly in pastels and sometimes oils. I begin by dividing the surface up into different parts with neutral colours to map it out, adding anything new alters the balance and determines what comes next. There are lots of layers, edits, sometimes working with the paper / canvas upside down, until it gives me what I want, – a balance between colour, form, light, dark, playfulness and beauty.
Selected Exhibitions:
June 2017 New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London SW1
June 2017 For The Cheltenham Open Studios, Jenny Westbrook (solo exhibition) Hanover St , Cheltenham.
April 2017 The Stuckists at Cass Art Islington London N18Ab
February 2017 The Pastel Society at The Mall Galleries, London SW1
July 2016 The Stuckist Art Show and Artists Sale, View Two Gallery, Liverpool L26RE
June 2016 Broadway Open Arts Festival, Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway WR127JH
February 2016 ‘The Animal Within’ Roses Theatre Tewkesbury, Glos.
October – December 2015 ‘ Stuckism: Re modernising The Mainstream’ University of Kent.
August – September 2015 Cheltenham Group of Artists at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham.
April 2015 In Celebration of Shakespeare Worchester Cathedral with The Cheltenham Group of Artists.
September 2014 ‘Letting go Down The Hill’ Bonbernard Gallery, Dean Close School, Cheltenham, Solo Show.
October 2012 ‘Stuckism: Elizabethan Avante-Garde’ Bermondsey Project SE15SJ
August 2011 ‘A Tangled Tale’ Taurus Crafts, Forest of Dean solo show.
November 2010 The Turtle Gallery Cheltenham
November 2009 The Sundial Gallery Cirencester with Richard Straley
August 2009 The Gloucester Stuckists, Guildhall, Gloucester
August 2009 ‘The Stuckists’ View Two Liverpool
May 2008 Hadfield Fine Art, Broadway, Glos.
May 2008 The Guildhall, Glos., Solo Show
November 2008 & March 2008 Inspired Art Fair Spitalfields, London.
August 2007 ‘The Gardens Gallery, Cheltenham, Solo Show
July 2004 / 2005 Fosse Gallery
July 2004 I.O Gallery Brighton, Solo Show
April / July 2003 Star Gallery Cheltenham, Solo show.
September 2004 Platform 100, Discerning Eye, Ing Building London.
November 2002 Rope Store Gallery Nailsworth, Glos. with Judith McKenna
July 2001 Cheltenham Open painting.
October 2000 RK Burt ‘Works on Paper’. SE11SG