Jenny Pockley

Jenny Pockley creates luminous cityscapes that juxtapose distant views and street level angles and reveal a new way to view the urban environment. Distant views, which Pockley describes as a ‘network and spider web pattern of lights,’ are derived from the artist’s helicopter trips, while the street level paintings focus on the structure of iconic buildings.


Rather than portraying literal views, the two angles examine the effects of artificial light in shaping the structure of these cities from both near and afar. Her contrast of shadow and colour offers hauntingly beautiful representations, which take on a hazy dreamlike quality. Vast skies and natural landmarks shrouded in misty shimmering cloud. Individually each work has a restricted colour palette, allowing the artist the space to focus on the emotive effects of a single hue through layering a combination of tones.

EDUCATION:

MA from the Royal Academy Schools and a BA from Kent Institute of Art & Design, Canterbury

AWARDS:

Hunting Art Prize, Discerning Eye and Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award from the Kent Institute.

Pockley lives and works in East Sussex, England.

“I love anywhere along the banks of the Thames, and I have always viewed London through the eyes of a landscape painter, seeking out high points – Tower 42, The Gherkin, the London Eye, Primrose Hill – as well as taking several helicopter trips over the city. I enjoy a long-standing kinship with the view from the top of Centrepoint, where the key landmarks of St Paul’s and the skyscrapers of the City and Canary Wharf all line up. When doing a show called Transcriptions in 2007, I was lucky enough to visit the room at The Savoy where Monet painted a Thames vista. It’s a wonderful view of the river, incorporating Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament.”

Interview: