jane@contactarts.co.uk

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The Artist Speaks

Jane likes to work mainly in stone, carving straight into it without a preconception of the finished piece; taking suggestions from plant or human forms. She allows the innate quality that the stone contains help form the piece i.e. she allows the stone to show what it wants to be depending on the colour, form and energy that it has.

A recent commission, a wedding present from groom to bride, worked with two forms, interconnected yet separate. It took the leaf/pod shapes Jane had been working with into further abstraction. The idea was to represent the joining of two people, becoming a married couple and at the same time maintaining their own identity. The piece was made from Greek marble and had a very sensual surface and feeling.

Leaf, Greek marble, was working with three forms moving as one and also away from each other. It also represents growth.

A recent carving ‘Hope’, symbolizes and evokes the Sussex landscape in a traditional English way and expresses hope for its conservation and survival.

Processes and Techniques

When stone carving Jane works mainly with hand tools to cut the stone. The work is usually on a small scale and made in the studio. She works with a variety of stones from marble to granite.

Community Projects

Jane also works on a lot of community projects, working with the public to create site specific artworks.

Recent projects include a labyrinth mosaic in the Tate community garden and a sun mosaic on the Kinglake estate, Southwark.

She also runs the Heart Garden project at Art in the Park, Burgess Park, which is a gardening and art project for people with heart conditions and other health issues. And she works at Inspire at St. Peter’s Church, Walworth running the reminiscence group project.