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Joseph Clark Collection

Zena Kay

Illustration and still life

Zena Kay is a Nottingham-based illustrator, a Kingston graduate, whose colourful drawings centre on food. With Tess Smith-Roberts she started the drawing project Still Here Still Life, which grew into a weekly brief and a book.

In the collection

About the artist

Zena Kay is an illustrator based in Nottingham and a graduate of Kingston, whose drawings centre on food, from lobsters with lemon to fruit laid out on tablecloths (It's Nice That). She works in both analogue and digital media, from iPad to paint, chalk and ink, and draws on 1920s and 1930s food illustration (It's Nice That).

During the 2020 lockdown she and fellow illustrator Tess Smith-Roberts set up Still Here Still Life, an Instagram page encouraging people to draw still life, which became a weekly brief (It's Nice That). The project led to the Still Here Still Life book, which Kay co-directed with Smith-Roberts and for which she drew the cover (Zena Kay). The Joseph Clark Collection holds her Untitled (Still Life) (Joseph Clark Collection).

Sources

  1. It's Nice That
  2. Zena Kay
  3. Joseph Clark Collection

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