Acclaimed local photo journalist Tony Kenwright swaps his camera for canvas!
Tony Kenwright solo exhibition Saturday 11 August to Saturday 6th October

Award- winning press photographer Tony Kenwright has a new exhibition of images unveiled next month and there isn’t a single photograph amongst them. The show, ‘Out of My Head’, at the Rathbone Studio on Argyle Street showcases the eclectic nature of Tony’s paintings. Featuring local scenes, portraits, imagined views and abstract expressionism has been completed over the past six months.

Tony worked as a press photographer at the Liverpool post & echo for over 25 years during which time he received numerous awards for his work but, since exchanging his camera for brushes, his work has found a new audience and attracted sales around the country mainly thanks to social networks like Facebook.

Tony’s whole career has involved images, whether as photographs or as fine art. After being a hobby artist he began to take his talent more seriously in the early 90s when he began creating works for commissions and selling paintings through local galleries.

Out of My Head
New exhibition opening 11 August 2025

Award- winning press photographer Tony Kenwright has a new exhibition of images unveiled next month and there isn’t a single photograph amongst them. The show, Out of My Head, features more than 20 paintings completed over the past six months.

Wildlife Artist

I’ve painted animals all my life. As a child in the sixties I was a wild thing. Seventh of eight kids, my mum – a young widow – struggled to get by. I was left to my own devices a great deal and the allotments behind our house on the Wirral became my jungle. I’d draw and paint what I saw on the back of old bits of wallpaper. Not much has changed.

My aim when I work is beauty, to take a blank canvas and create an emotion. I try to combine softness and strength; the Celtic wildness of my Irish heritage with the softness of a wife and a mother.

Clare is one of Britain’s top wildlife artists. Her work is soft and beautiful and captures the animal in its quieter moments.

She has been three times shortlisted for wildlife artist of the year

Current Exhibition

Always having an interest in art and textiles Susan started painting in the early 1980’s, using watercolour and gouache as initial media.

As she became more confident she ventured into using oils and acrylics, and by chance stumbled into painting on silk using specialist dyes. The vibrancy and freeflowing of dyes on silk gave way to a more contemporary style and Susans work has become easily recognisable.

Susan specialises in flower based paintings and landscapes both contemporary and traditional, large acrylics on canvas with bold colours alongside soft billowy watercolours.

She found when painting on silk the medium was especially sympathetic to paintings of race horses, the fluidity giving the appearance of speed and the vibrancy representing the bold colours of the jockeys ‘silks’.

Watercolour however is her preferred medium, finding it a more peaceful and enjoyable experience, the mingling of pigment and paper giving at times the most unexpected conclusion to a journey with colour.

Based on the Wirral Susan has exhibited her work at many venues throughout England and Wales, and after nine years of running Enigma Gallery with her dear friend Cathy who sadly died in January, Susan is now taking time to paint at a more leisurely pace, enjoying travelling with her husband Peter and enjoying the company of her six grandchildren, Charlie, Joe, James, Stephen, Megan and last but not least little Archie and her two step-grandchildren Ben and Matthew.

Archived Exhibition

The imposing facade of the Birkenhead Institute was one of the most iconic to rise in the town during the Edwardian period. The embryonic talents of the young Wilfred Owen were nurtured there. Through its dark panelled corridors patrolled the stern form masters and eager prefects. Renowned for its sports, science and arts, it shaped the character of its pupils into outstanding ambassadors of a bygone age.

The original school was demolished in the 1980s but its proud edifice was preserved by one of its most timehonoured veterans. Art master David S W Jones created dozens of meticulous line drawings of his beloved Birkenhead Institute and these capture the true sense of time and place of the school's fabled past.

I have created a model of the school that was commissined especially for this exhibition. I was inspired by David Jones drawings and I have tried to recreate the Spirit of Birkenhead Institute.

Wilfred Owen Story and Gallery
34 Argyle Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 6AE

Tuesday – Friday 11.00am – 2.00pm

For Saturday opening please phone 07539371925 or visit www.wilfredowenstory.com