Nothing is more important to us than our staff, we are always keen to invest towards their professional development, but their personal development is equally important. Here at JCW we often celebrate career achievements of our people and occasionally we get to share some life achievements as well.

On display in an exhibition right now, at the Photiq Gallery in Leamington Spa, is the beautiful photography work of our Company Administration Supervisor, Catherine Knee, who is a keen photographic artist outside of JCW.

We spoke to Catherine to see exactly why she wanted to take part in the competition:

Catherine entered the Leamington Photo Fest after hearing about it while having had a stand at the Leamington Art in the Park earlier in the year. As a self-confessed competition lover, with international medals for her photography success, this would be the perfect opportunity for something closer to home. Entries to the Leamington Photo Fest were to show case the area of Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth, and this had Catherine conceptualise ways to retain her normal creative style. “I came up with the idea of an image of the interior of a church, because I think they look amazing in photographs, but to keep my own flavour in the image, I had to add an angel.”

Catherine’s creative style

Her style particularly leaning towards “Fairies and Angels” in other words “beings with wings that we would not expect to encounter”.

First, Catherine had made contact and got permission from the Father at All Saints Church in Leamington Spa. She then spent a full afternoon photographing inside the church, trying to find “just the right shot”. She later invited an experienced model to take part, and styled the model, purchasing just the right garment, and deciding on hair and make-up styling. After all the planning and traveling, the final shot took another hour of shooting with the model. However her work was still not complete:

“I already had a photograph of a swan taken previously, from which I could use the wings. It then took me an evening of work to process the images and then create the composite image. I would say it took more than a full day and two evenings, spread over a couple of days”.

And the result…

The showcasing piece is made possible with the permission of All Saints Church in Leamington Spa, the model, and hours of work from Catherine. Behind this serene photographic artistry, a great deal of thought and effort had gone in! We are so proud of Catherine’s personal achievement.

More about the Artist

Catherine is very invested in her art form and spends a very high percentage of her personal time in photography related pursuits. Aside from the time spent photographing and creating images, she also enters and competes for places in numerous international exhibitions. On top of that, Catherine still finds the spare time to judge camera competitions, and gives talks as well as hosts photo walks and short workshops, sometimes as often as three evenings a week. Not to mention the time spent on giving her art exposure via social media.

“I spend probably 4 evenings a week and a fair chunk of my weekend time on photography. Out of work activity is important to me because I like to have a balance between the creative and the logical side of me. Work fulfils my needs on the side of logic and photography fulfils my needs on the creative side of things. I find that balance between the two is very important in my life.”

…and we couldn’t agree more!

Visit the Photiq Gallery before the 4/12 to see Catherine’s “Messenger in White” on display.
Reality is Overrated is the title of one of Catherine’s talks. “It is called that, because it is filled with images that are manipulated, and far from “reality”. I have always loved mystical and mythical creatures, I love wings, so a lot of my characters end up with wings. But I do also do creative images that are not fantasy based. With my photography work, I like to explore more than the mundanities of life. I always say to people, “if I want to see real life, I only have to open my eyes every morning”.”

For Catherine’s talks and events click here.

Follow her on social media @catherineknee

For her other photographic art work click here.