Janeis an artist, calligrapher, teacher Illustrator and newly appointed exhibiting KAS member. She has exhibited in the United States, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia and has featured in a documentary on her work. She majored in etching at college and works in oils, acrylics, mixed media, drawing and collage.
Jane is a wonderfully accomplished and diverse artist and began the evening by showing us through a recent book of a selection of her work. Jane took us on a journey, talking about the inspirations and aspirations of her world including stunning botanical work, etchings, buildings, landscapes and abstracts. Her work covered a wide range of media including, pen and ink, pastel, acrylic, oil, collage & etching. Whilst she enjoys using all these mediums, her greatest passion is watercolour and colour mixing, which she has been exploring for over 30 years.
The depth of this passion became clearly evident when she showed us her stunning array of hand-painted “colour” books. They are a beautiful and extensive exploration of hundreds of pigments – how they mix with other pigments and react wet in wet.
Her knowledge of pigments is extraordinary with outstanding presentation colour sheets. Jane gave us all a handout which contained 16 ultimate colours, which she went through, explaining why these particular colours (and in particular the exact pigment) are the best for mixing. An insight of what to look for into technical specifications of various manufacturers was extremely helpful.
Jane then gave us a practical demonstration of how to get harmonious colour combinations – mixing a colour wheel from various triads and making sure that any other colours you chose to use, tie in with these colours.
Jane shared essential principles such as how to, mix a vibrant orange, mix your warmest yellow with your warmest red and how to mix a vibrant purple, your warmest blue with coolest red. Also getting the right green is often difficult, so she showed us how to mix a lot of glorious greens from a variety of yellows and blues – and mixing orange with Pthalo Green.
Another very important point she stressed, is to make sure that we use artist quality paints, and to make sure they are lightfast pigments.(Jane uses Daniel Smith paints, which are not so well known about but available at Parkers Art Supplies in The Rocks). Her view was that some colours such as Alizarin Crimson and Auerlion Yellow are fugitive, which means they can fade over time, and should not be used!
In collaboration with the author Steve Stine she has also illustrated the acclaimed children’s book ‘Kayla and the Magical Tree’, published in 2003.
Thank you Jane for an enlightening and motivating insight into your world.
For more information about Jane see her website. www.janeblundellart.com
