Dear reader, my first close contact with art took place in the prestigious Fine Arts school in Rennes (Brittany, France). As my work as an actress took up a lot of my time, I enrolled for some evening classes. Whilst developing my company called E for English (which helps people develop their communication and oral skills in English) I was also learning about art. Although very professional, the art classes in the school had a very intellectual and traditional approach. I felt, very early on, that this approach was not for me. I have always wanted to break a few rules to be able to stand out, think outside the box and still continue to want to do this today. I am constantly inventing new rules and as soon as they are in place, I break them and move on. You can see this in my work. If you take a look at my earlier work, which is posted on my website, you can recognise the style and in my most recent paintings, you can see it has evolved and I want it to keep evolving!

When I moved from Brittany to Lyon, I enrolled on a two years art course under the tutorial of Francoise Monnier, who graduated at Stanford University in the US. Under her tuition I felt free to develop my style.

In 2015 I had my first exhibitions on an art fair market that is held every Sunday morning in Lyon. Here, I spent two years gaining experience, growing and developing as an artist.

In 2017, Estelle Gauthier, who managed the renowned three star Michelin chef Georges Blanc’s art gallery in Vonnas (France) spotted my work. I was given a three months solo exhibition in the Georges Blanc art gallery and this triggered off my career. Very prestigious people such as Barak Obama, Matt Damon, Antoine Griesman saw my art.

Since, I have exhibited all over France and more recently in Paris as well as in a number of art galleries in New South Wales, Australia where my mother lives and last year I developed some illustrations for a “no waste” campaign for a number of Hilton Hotels.

My art has been bought by a number of private collectors from France, Austria, the UK and Australia. I have also been published in a number of magazines in France as well as have let various towns use my art for their theatre season.

I have learnt an incredible amount by looking at other artists work, sharing with them, watching tutorials on social media, visiting art galleries, museums, but most of all by trial and error!!!

I want my paintings to make people smile and feel the optimism even though my subjects and messages are sometimes quite sombre.

I paint onto large surfaces using acrylic paint and vibrant colours. I get my colour inspiration from Yayoi Kusama’s work.

I create my pieces with many different layers. I build up layers of clean colour, leaving glimpses of what went down before, then I progress with one main thought in mind: what do I leave on the canvas?

My use of spray paint, acrylic pens and stencils add an urban contemporary look to my work. The subjects of my paintings have been world preoccupations for a number of years but are very much present today in 2020. Their political and social messages show what a brutal world we live in but give an optimistic edge through my use of colour.

My main subject is a series of portraits of women. I feel very strongly about the impact women have on the world. Although not a feminist, I do feel that the world is too one sided: white middle class men must let go a little and give us “girls” more of a chance to have our voices heard. I am preparing series of portraits of women who fight for the right for girls all over the world to have free access to education and will be developing this in 2021.

I am currently working on a series of portraits of angels inspired by the “greats” such as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphaël, getting my inspiration from conventional poses and drawings and giving them an urban, graffiti vibe.

In order to be distinctive, I do not follow a set pattern or rules but am spontaneous and paint with my “gut”. This makes painting painful as it sometimes doesn’t work but when it does, the feeling is amazing! I hope you will be able to capture this when you take a look at my work and thank you for having taken the time to read my story!

Pamela Kenny-Levick

Artworks by Pamela Kenny-Levick

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Angel 1 by Pamela Kenny-Levick

Acrylic painting