Jane Fairhurst has been working from her studio at Cross Street Arts, Wigan for over twenty years. On leaving school she studied at Liverpool College of Art and in 2010 she returned and gained an MFA with distinction.
During her 30 plus years as a practicing artist she has worked across a range of media and since 2017 she has focused solely upon her painting practice with the intention of studying and understanding the medium through discourse and practice and with a view to producing fresh work that really stretches her as a painter.
Jane selects the subject matter for her paintings from the things that catch her eye whilst walking or travelling. Often landscape or botanical in origin she focuses on particular aspects that resonate with her and that elicit a physical response be it playful or sinister. Extracting elements she creates stripped back paintings that whilst disassociated from their origins retain something of the resonance she initially felt. Colour is important too as it is what often first catches her eye. For added interest she may use patterns found in flowers, bird eggs and other natural forms to replace the original.
She makes quick watercolour and ink sketches directly or from memory then works them up into finished paintings in her studio using oil paints.
Fairhurst creates paintings that are organic in structure, informed by nature but abstracted and broken free of pure representation.
Exhibitions
2022 BEEP International Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales
2022 Sixty Drawings + Ten, The Whitaker, Rossendale
2021 Obstructions, Castlefield Gallery, Salford, Manchester
2021 In Series, solo exhibition, The World of Glass, St Helens
2020 Love is a Rebellious Bird, The Fire Within, Wigan
Contact
Website: www.janefairhurst.co.uk/
Twitter: @Jane.Fairhurst