Jane Strother OAS – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.janestrother.co.uk
07505 214795
jane.strother@outlook.com

text 07505214795

https://www.flipbookpdf.net/web/site/ab454d3aff495a149d99b00e00fb0e6329d7d8eb202504.pdf.html#page/1

Artist information

I trained at Bath Academy of Art, completing a BA in Fine Art and Printmaking, followed by a PGCE at the University of Bristol and an MA in Art Education at Oxford Brookes University.

Alongside her painting practice, for nearly 20 years she worked as a freelance commercial illustrator in publishing, packaging and advertising for a wide range of clients including Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, London Transport, Midland Mainline, Saatchi Design, Reader’s Digest, Longman, Heinemann, Penguin, Random House and Oxford University Press.

Since 1980 she has worked in schools, colleges and many private organisations, teaching challenging drawing and painting courses for all ages, which enable students at whatever level of experience or ability to develop their own art practice. She works to their needs as a teacher and facilitator. Considerable experience in the line management and training of tutors and in monitoring good practice while working for Oxfordshire County Council and Abingdon and Witney College, has enriched her own performance, both as a teacher and professional painter and printmaker. With experience, teaching has become interrelated with her practice.

Recent and current exhibitions:

Borderlines, May 2023 at The North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford

Annual Oxfordshire Artweeks and Oxford Art Society exhibitions.

Currently, I am showing two paintings at Kendrew Barn, St John’s College, St Giles, Oxford as part of the OAS members’ show.

In October 2025, A solo show at the Sewell Gallery, Radley College, Oxfordshire.

Exhibition information

Landscape is my inspiration and subject matter. The aesthetic qualities and considerations of shape, colour, pattern, mark making and composition are my interest. ‘Abstracting the Landscape’ for me is to work with and make objective decisions and judgements according to these. The subject is evident but lies somewhere beneath the painted surface.

I work in the studio, usually in oil on canvas or board. Collecting imagery from observation whether by drawing or photography is an important part of my practice. Currently, this involves making quick line or shape drawings on small, loose pieces of paper or taking photographs, as an aide memoir to interesting features and the shape of the land. Selections from this ‘notebook’ form an integral part of the process of building a new ‘space’.

I aim to allow decision making to be visible, the process to be seen, the handling of the materials and media to be part of the ‘object’. Questions as to next steps can be answered through an informed process of adding, altering and removing. Each change is made in relation to the image as it develops and can be changed again in relation to future changes.

The final image is constructed (and deconstructed) through many stages and layers of paint but always with an adherence to truth.