Main photo ‘After the Storm, Oxford Street, Manchester’

Janet Kenyon is a multi-award winning water colour artist hailing from Bolton, in North West England.

She began experimenting in water colour whilst studying for her degree at Leeds Polytechnic, where she achieved a BA Hons in Graphic Design.

Her experimental approach continues to push the boundaries of this medium, capturing both natural and artificial light and its interaction with the landscape.

In this post I want to show off her work from my neck of the woods … ‘sunny’ Manchester, and the rather grim, rundown seaside town of Blackpool, famous for its ‘Illuminations’ where the seafront is decorated with festive lights…

Above- ‘The Principal, Manchester’

I enjoy the challenge of painting in watercolour because it’s not the easiest of mediums, there’s a lot of trial and error which makes it all the more rewarding when it does work out… source

Above- ‘Urban Light, Peter Street, Manchester’

Above- Evening Light, Printworks, Manchester’

[She] is interested in capturing those hidden moments of tranquility or ‘pockets of space‘ …that exist within the hustle and bustle of a modern-day city… source

Above- ‘Evening Light, Oxford Street, Manchester’

Above- ‘After the Storm, Oxford Street, Manchester’

‘In my paintings I love to explore the different qualities of light, and through much experimenting over the years, I’m still developing my technique. The method I use to capture light, in my paintings, is the same whether it’s natural or artificial and is made up of many watercolour layers. To achieve this I use clear wax to mask off certain areas and lots of water and repeat this many times over. The highlights in my daytime scenes and the artificial lights in my night time scenes are the first areas to be masked off, then the process of applying and removing the watercolour starts.’ source

Above- ‘Urban Light, Oxford Street, Manchester’

Above- ‘The Palace Theatre, Oxford Street, Manchester’

‘…I particularly love the challenge I get from painting cityscapes, the shapes, structures and the space between with each city presenting it’s own unique qualities of scale and layout.’ source

Above- ‘Northern Edge, Manchester’

Above- The Opera House, Manchester’

‘There’s still so many cities I’d like to paint one of them being the city of Reykjavik, Iceland which I’m visiting at the end of February, for a few days: hopefully the light will be good as I’m looking to gather as much information as I can for future paintings.’ source

…and not forgetting our own Aurora Borealis of The North, Blackpool!!

Above- ‘The Golden Mile, Blackpool’

Above- ‘Northern Lights, Blackpool’

All work by Janet Kenyon, from her website, and here

I am intending to post some more of her work probably next week… either her other cityscapes or landscapes (which are amazing!)