Janette Kerr RWA, RSA hon

Profile

Janette Kerr is an Hon Royal Scottish Academician, and an RWA Academician.

Delighting in sudden and unpredictable changes in the weather, Kerr is a painter of the northern
landscape – a foul-weather painter who enjoys being out in, and working from the landscape at its extremes. Charcoal drawings and small paintings made on-site become the basis for larger paintings and drawings and mixed media developed in the studio. She divides her time between living and working in Shetland and Somerset.

“Through my research I seek to imbed myself in a landscape and the historical culture of a place,
focusing on the heritage of historical relationships with land and sea.”

Autumn 2016 she travelled in the High Arctic on a tall ship around the coast of Svalbard as part of the Arctic Circle Programme expedition.

extremewavetheory.blogspot.co.uk

Summer 2017 she worked on a collaborative project with film/sound artist Jo Millett on a film and sound project in Shetland: ‘Confusing Shadow with Substance‘. Weaving together contemporary and historical images and sounds, the piece examines the relationship between past and present and the interplay of land, sea and human activity at the site of one of Shetland’s busiest former fishing stations. This toured during 2021-22.

confusingshadowwithsubstance.co.uk/

Winter 2020 she was in Iceland on a 6 week residency in Skagaströnd, returning just before lockdown:

janettekerr.co.uk/post/skagastr%C3%B6nd-art-residency-preparations 2021

She collaborated with artists Jo Millet and Rob Gawthrapp, and art collective Satsymph, to set
up a sound walk around Stenness beach, Northmavine, Shetland: Ling received: fishermen of the far haaf:

confusingshadowwithsubstance.co.uk/sound-walk/

2022 she received funding from Creative Scotland for her project Slow time, Fast Time, living for 7 weeks during April/May in Oqaatsut, a remote settlement in the Disko Bay area of Greenland. She is currently working on a solargraphic and field recordings project linking Shetland and Greenland:

janettekerr.co.uk/blog

Conversations between two landscapes

In between all this and because of all this she continues to paint and exhibit images of northern places.