'Left on Read' - 珺楠 (Jenna)
- katekellyart
- Feb 4
- 2 min read
'Left on Read' - 珺楠 (Jenna), 60 × 90 cm, Oil on Canvas, 2026
This painting is part of my Women & Work series and I started painting Jenna after my painting of Ramah, and the work was born out of a nostalgia for our MA. However, as I continued painting and reflecting on why I was depicting these women in their workspaces, I realised I had been thinking more deeply about the spaces women work in, and how women balance creativity with rigorous schedules, ghosting, heartbreak, constant distractions from the digital world and domestic obligations.
I have always been fascinated by how other women artists live their lives and juggle their artistic practice alongside a second job, family, and friends. Some of my favourite books are written by female artists who reflect on how they have lived their lives, such as Self-Portrait by Celia Paul and With Darkness Came Stars by Audrey Flack. These books act as a blueprint for how women artists before me have navigated their practice alongside their lives.
While painting Jenna, I read Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey. This book explores the daily habits, creative routines, and struggles of 143 female artists, writers, and thinkers. Understanding the creative journeys and rituals of other artists provides me with insight into my own practice.
My painting of Jenna is titled Left on Read and comes from a conversation we had at the Station Tavern pub in Cambridge after work. Jenna showed me her new paintings, which had a thick, glossy, colourful, joyous energy, reflective of her recent mood. However, it transcribed more recently she had been “left on read” demonstrating a lack of prioritizing from the significant recipient she had been messaging and whom had inspired the change of pallet within her work.
If interested please follow the links below to my website to see more painting from my women & work series and to my Instagram for the process of how I crated this painting of Jenna.
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