Janette Kerr

Jannette Kerr PPRWA RSA (Hon) (b. 1959) is known for her paintings of the far North and High Arctic. Her direct experience of coastline, weather and oceanographic studies, push the boundaries between representation and abstraction. 

Kerr seeks out places where change is swift, powerful and where the sea boils. The uncompromising nature of her work incorporates all the energy of Action Painting with the tangible sensations of wind-swept waves, salt spray and ocean swell. Kerr normally paints from her studios in Shetland or Somerset; but often seeks out even wilder and remoter experiences. Her residencies include Nes International art residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland (2020), Arctic Circle Programme expedition (2016), and the Meteorological Institute, Bergen, Norway.

'My process of making paintings involves extremes and instabilities: peripheries and promontories - sites of instability and unknowing, places of rapid change and shifts both physically and meteorologically.' Janette Kerr

Janette Kerr was elected a Royal West of England Academy Academician in 2003 and RWA President (2011-16), she is an honorary Royal Scottish Academician and Visiting Research Fellow in Fine Art, UWE Bristol. Kerr has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and her work is represented in public and private collections world wide.