Jenny Wheatley's Journey

An exhibition of work by renowned British painter Jenny Wheatley is coming to Stow-on-the-Wold this month

- CANDIA MCKORMACK

What is your preferred medium and way of working, Jenny – are you happier in the studio or en plein air? I cannot really separate either medium or method of working as each is very much a part of the whole process.

I work in oils, watercolours and acrylic and I love the different qualities of each medium. When starting a piece, I will first think carefully about the way I wish to see the finished piece and the marks that I feel will best represent this, then the answers to these questions will dictate the medium I use. Regarding studio pieces versus painting outdoors, again the two processes are linked. I work en plein air to collect immediate responses and a sense of understanding and analysis of the subject before me. To this end I will both use a sketchbook to draw the forms, and either watercolours or oils to make initial painted responses to what is in front of me. These images along with written notes and small drawings will inform larger studio pieces done away from the place. They become a distillation of place and the way I feel about it; the journey.

How many pieces will be exhibited, and how did you make the selection? I expect to be showing around 40 paintings at the Fosse Gallery in February. These will be largely oils and acrylics with a few watercolours. I will paint about 60 and then choose what I feel best works together and what gives both a sense of the essence of place as well as the pictorial journey that helps me reach that point.