Modern Art Oxford is hosting Oxford painter Jenny Saville’s first solo exhibition, which is creating ripples around the globe. Katherine MacAlister catches up with the local painter to find out what her paintings are all about It’s been a long time coming. Jenny Saville is a Charles Saatchi protegee whose reputation has grown and grown in recent years, her work now being coveted by global collectors and galleries.

And yet having her first retrospective in the city where she lives and works is still a big deal. “It feels great actually,” Jenny grins. “I love the space of MAO and it’s quite rare to be able to show in a space with wonderful daylight.

“But it also feels very special to have a show in the city I’ve had a lifelong connection with. Because I’ve always had a connection with Oxford and some of my family live here.

“I’ve worked in London too,” she continues, “but because I have a young family, life in Oxford is much better for them. It’s a great city to raise children. In fact the only problem with Oxford is finding good-sized buildings to work in.”

Currently ensconced in a vast office building, Jenny juggles her art with motherhood, often doing night shifts when her children are in bed. So does it mean she has to be more productive and less experimental? “Not at all, I’ve become so much more creative through watching my children scribble. I basically only work when my children are at school or asleep because I really love hanging out with them as much as possible.

“So I have been fortunate enough to build my working life around them,” she says.

Concentrating on the female form, Jenny has painted since she was a child, being allocated a cupboard under the stairs to let her childhood talent develop.

“Women and their bodies has been a dominant subject in art history and I think I make art in that tradition,” she explains.

“But it’s definitely not a visual demonstration against media perceptions of the female form.

“I’m a consumer of visual images just like anyone else and live in the 21st century. And being an artist is a whole life experience, so visual possibilities for paintings are all around me. Cornmarket, for example, is a great street for watching people’s faces.”

So while Jenny is excited about her exhibition opening, the 42-year-old isn’t bothered about our reactions because we all see things differently. “You can never predict how people will feel about the work, as they bring their own life’s perspective to it,” she says.

Which is why Jenny is happy to leave the descriptions up to you: “If I could sum up verbally what my work was about I wouldn’t need to paint. That’s the point of painting – it speaks to the part of us that’s non verbal. It has the ability to speak to the rational and irrational part of us.”

But she does concede that while some people have an unspoken fear of art in all its forms, her exhibition is nothing to worry about. “Well, it’s free to get in and nowhere near as stressful as taking two young children around a supermarket on a Friday evening!” she laughs. “So for me, making art is a great way to spend your life.”

* Jenny Saville runs at MAO until September 16 and admission is free. See modernartoxford.org.uk or call 01865 722733.

Photographs by Geraint Lewis