Jane Keay - Artist, Illustrator.
It's now 2022 and I can't remember a time when I have not expressed my passion for drawing and art, whether it was with a pen or pencil, a brush, or even my own nails....pressed gently against a leaf or petal. Endless 'doodling' within the margins of my college notebooks. I am a self-taught artist and as such, have found inspiration from a love and passion of historic books, their artists and illustrators and the illustrators of those times, they became my 'Gods'. In particular the works of Arthur Rackham, the three wonderfully talented Robinson Brothers; Charles, Heath and Thomas, and the wonderful Charles Tunnicliffe.
I work from my home studio, which is open to visitors by appointment, allowing me the opportunity and privilege of selling directly to my customers, and to enable me to personally and passionately express the storey behind my work. I also sell at art shows, fairs and exhibitions and my work is displayed in many galleries: Made in the Marches Gallery, Kington. Blue Stone Gallery, Hay on Wye. Oxenham Gallery, Leominster and Mistletoe House Cards. (Please select Gallery hyperlinks for further details of exhibitions and their locations)
I am a resident artist at the Made in the Marches Gallery in Kington and my work can be observed throughout their seasonal exhibitions. In addition, and during the last three years, I have also illustrated three books, which are much anticipated and will be available to purchase via my website in due course.
​Drawing and painting is part of my being, my expression of my ideas, my feelings and my emotions. Everything I see, touch and sense. It's a communication sensed between myself, the artist and the onlooker. My work is an expression recording and a communication with the natural world around me, including the past history of a location, places hidden in dereliction, fossils, seasonal changes, the weather, winds and rainfall. The unearthing of hidden treasures, camouflaged out of site, and the seasonal movements of nature itself.
I love to draw, paint and illustrate, especially using inks and watercolours. Often building up a single with multiple layers, ending with a glow of light and colour. In some of my recent works, i felt the need to evoke a sense of the landscape and to capture a sense of awe. It's when the ancient, the past and the present...and even the future, are all sensed within the present. Time becomes mutable, the onlooker becomes involved as part of the storey.
Throughout my career, I have taught art in all forms, for all age ranges, from 3 to 92. From absolute beginners to experienced artists and living for most of that life in the borderlands between Wales and England, the wild spirit engendered in much of the stark, magic wilderness and the warmth of the people I have met, makes it both a rewarding and fulfilling vocation.
Art has become part of my being, my expression of ideas and my feelings. It's my way of looking at the world and translating everything I see, feel, touch and sense, into a visual image that I hope evokes an emotion in the viewer. My inspiration comes from spending hours amongst the hills and valleys close to home; collecting stones, shells, fossils, leaves, bits of old metal, twigs, berries and bones, and all things that glisten. I am moved by seasonal shifts, and sources of sunlight, moonshine, star glow and reflections. In some of my recent works I express a sense of 'the landscape of the mind and spirit', a sentient landscape, not just a linear landscape, but to capture a sense of awe.
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