Kenilworth Nub News aims to be supportive to every element of the community from businesses, shops, and people, to charities, clubs and sports organisations.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses, and groups regularly over the coming weeks in a feature called 'Up Close With'.

The second in this series is with local artist Jay Cartwright.

"The people of Kenilworth have inspired me, and I very much see this as giving back to them"

These are the words of Jay Cartwright, the man behind Cartwright Creates.

Anybody who is a member of Kenilworth Vibes, or any other Kenilworth online social group, will have been hard-pressed to miss the work of Jay Cartwright during the lockdown period.

Jay has been sharing his art through the Cartwright Creates website, and social media channels, to great reception from the people of Kenilworth.

It has been that reaction from the local people which has encouraged him to pursue his painting further, "without them, I wouldn't be doing this."

That first piece

Jay's first dabble in art was back in 2018, when he decided to do a painting for his baby girl.

He decided that he would paint a turtle for her, which he describes fondly as "still one of the best pieces I have done!"

Despite the enjoyment that he got from it and the talent he clearly has, Jay then put down his paint brushes until 2020.

Furloughed from work in April, he then realised "I'm going to need something to do."

So as a break from DIY work on his new house, Jay decided to dust off the paints and return to the canvas.

"I remembered when I was doing the turtle I got lost in it."

So with the encouragement of his family, he began painting again, following competitions on Instagram where people were challenged to copy photographs in their own style.

If you scroll to the bottom of his Instagram feed, you will see an array of different pieces.

Alongside the aforementioned turtle, there are a range of buildings, some plants, and even a boat.

"I was getting really good feedback," from the social media says Jay, and so he continued to dabble.

Cartwright Creates begins

Jay and his wife Laura moved to Kenilworth the day before the lockdown began in March. Laura, who grew up in Kenilworth, obviously knew the town very well, whereas Jay did not.

Jay made the most of his free time in lockdown to get acquainted with his new surroundings.

Spending his one hour of permitted exercise walking his dog around the town, he was able to discover all that it has to offer.

On a walk with his father, he stumbled across the Wantage on Castle Hill.

Deciding he wanted to learn a bit more about it, he posted on Facebook asking for information and was blown away by the amount of responses he received.

"There's some amazing places in Kenilworth, some real history and the people really care."

Having decided to now focus his art on local buildings Jay drew Time for Tea, of Castle Hill, and then the Clock Tower from the town centre.

Following this, Jay decided that he would run a poll across his social media to see which building from Kenilworth people would be interested in him painting, "I just thought I would let people have their say – and the response was phenomenal."

With viewing numbers into five figures on his Instagram, it took him well over an hour to count up all the responses from his various social media channels!

The Old Bakery was the runaway winner and the finished painting can be seen in the accompanying photographs.

Giving back to the community

Throughout our conversation, Jay was clear in his view that his work has served a few purposes.

Firstly, during a difficult time for everybody, it gave him a focus, and an escape for his mind when he needed it.

Secondly, it was a brilliant opportunity to learn more about his new home, and to get to know some more local people.

Most importantly however, it has become a chance to pay back the kindness that he has received in the past few months.

He said that "the main driving force behind this has been the people caring, and I want to give back to them if I can."

From the first post about the Wantage, to his Instagram now having well over 1,000 followers, the generosity of support for his work has been staggering throughout the lockdown period.

Interaction with local people has been key to the success of Cartwright Creates, Jay was eager to stress that without the warm reception he has received, he probably would have stopped by now.

His painting of Time for Tea has in fact just been put on display at The Temperance Cafe in Leamington!

Engineer by day, commissioned artist by night

"If people in Kenilworth like my stuff and style, and they want me to draw anything in particular, then they can let me know!"

Jay, who works for Jaguar Land Rover as a day job, has also been touched at how important some of his art has been to individual people.

"In my professional career, we don't really deal with emotions, so this has been a bit of a change of pace."

One of Jay's earliest works was a commission of a garden scene.

The piece was requested by a lady moving house, who wanted the painting as a memory of the time that she and her late partner had shared together in their old garden.

"There is more to the art than just painting a picture – there is a physical and emotional connection to these things I have realised."

In fact, the aforementioned painting of The Old Bakery, has now been rehoused in New Jersey. It was purchased by a former Kenilworth resident, who remembered collecting fresh bread at the bakery as a child.

This is a side to the work that Jay had not expected, but he has "been overwhelmed" by the impact some of his pieces have had.

Where from here?

Many readers will have seen the collection of postcards that Jay has begun to design.

Following a discussion with Sue in the Moseley Road Post Office, he now has plans to start producing some greetings cards in time for Christmas.

He is available for commissions via his website, and he is selling pieces via his Etsy page also.

You can keep up to date with what he has been doing on his Facebook Page, his Instagram and his Twitter.

You can see the first article in this series by following the link to 'Up Close With' Darcy Blu