Jane began painting whilst teaching English in Japan, studying the art of Sumi-e, (black ink wash painting), with a Master of the Art in Yokohama. She moved to The Netherlands and continued her training at the de Werkschuit Art School in Gouda. Returning to the UK, she took up life painting and drawing, studying in London and Dorset.

She has been studying portraiture at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea and at City Lit in Holborn, regularly painting models from life in oils. She painted nine free oil portraits for NHS workers over the Covid lockdown. Her portrait of three nurses from Kings College Hospital, London, was included in artist, Tom Croft’s book ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’, published by Bloomsbury.

‘I have always painted, but started my formal training with the art of Sumi-e whilst teaching in Japan. Linked to the Zen philosophy, Sumi-e is a meditational process, where one concentrates entirely on the present, and aims to capture the essence of the subject.  Simplicity, purity and space are important within the composition of the painting. These elements have remained with me in my current work. I enjoy working plein air, when possible, or simply near to the sound of nature and silence. I am compelled to record vignettes of my world and to explore colour and the effects of light and reflected light on the form.’

Recent Exhibitions and Publication

2020 Inclusion of my portrait of NHS nurses in Tom Croft’s ‘Portraits of NHS Heroes’, Bloomsbury Publishing

2020 The Heatherley School of Fine Art, Chelsea, Group Show

2019 City Lit, Espacio Gallery, Shoreditch, Group Show

2019 City Lit, Holborn, Group Show

2017 Dulwich Art Group, Dulwich Art Weeks, Open Studios

2017 Old Bank Gallery, Hayes, London, Group Show

2015 Art Auction, The Fluency Trust, Swindon