Drawing/Painting
Janet paints large sheets of pure expressionistic colour. She cuts out birds, trees, leaves, fishes, petals and arranges the cut-outs into collages. Through her daily walks in the woods she loves the profusion of the untamed. The tangled pattern of plants, flowers, trees. Natures haphazard growth, yet each leaf playing its part in the fragile balance of the whole. Janet makes visual snapshots of ‘moments ‘that light a spark. These trigger moments are usually visual but sometimes they filter through things she is reading like the perfect sentence from a book or music from a favourite song. She contemplates; how do you paint bird song or the rustle of a small creature in a hedgerow. The strong design element in Janet’s work is influenced by the years she worked as a Textile Designer. She still plays with wool and hand tuft colourful textiles.
About The Artist
Janet won a Scholarship to Dartington Hall School, B.A.Textiles Winchester School of Art. Since graduating she has always worked in the Arts. In early years she designed printed textiles, followed by a few years teaching whilst working at Hampshire Theatrical Wardrobe. Janet has also designed knitwear for 20 years and was selected by the Crafts Council to Exhibit in New York, San Francisco and her jackets, all hand knitted in U.K, were sold internationally through established Galleries like Julie’s Artisan Gally Madeson Ave. Bernard Fabers in San Francisco. Commissions from stores in Japan. Returning home after exhibiting in New York a couple of months after 9-11, Janet had time to literally go back to the drawing board and draw, draw, draw. She’s always believed everything comes from here. Then she began to paint, collages evolved, because the process of building a painting is not unlike making a cardigan. Today Janet still enjoys the process of working with yarn in her tufted Textiles.
