Jane Darke studied printed textiles at Middlesex University and the Royal college of Art. She specialised in large hand painted banners of wool and silk, the designs abstracted from her paintings.
Whilst studying for her BA and MA degrees she drew and painted her life with Nick, documenting their home, the places they visited and the things they found.
Jane worked exclusively as a painter from 1985 to 2002 and has continued to paint, with interruptions, while making films and writing.
Jane’s interest in Natural History lead her to complete part of an Open University Degree in Earth Sciences in the year 2000.
“It made me look into the natural world more than I had. My work has always been of little corners of my life, things that are familiar to me, particularly my home. When I moved to Cornwall the key experiences became fishing, wrecking and exploring the landscape.”
“I have always painted what is around me, my home, my immediate environment, people I know, things I’ve found on beaches. Still life and landscape predominate. Lately I’ve been playing with combinations of found objects until they suggest a narrative, perhaps because I am writing too. Some of the objects have a profound significance for me. It can be because I’ve had them a long time or they are rare or were found under strange circumstances. They have become valuable. Some of the plastic toys erode in a way that reminds me of ancient Greek sculptures thousands of years old. Some of the objects are genuinely old, a human skull from the Iron age for example. And everything becomes significant if painted in a still life for posterity.”
Jane Darke works in oil paint on paper, canvas and board.
Jane works to commission. Contact her at janesdarke@gmail.com
Paintings (from 1990 and before to the present day)
