Biography
"Jane Lewis is an accomplished draughtswoman; however neither accuracy, on the one hand, nor imagination on the other, is enough to create a masterpiece. The elements of the picture must build not only a unity of design but weave a tapestry of meaning. This is where symbolism and suggestion come in, dogs, birds, butterflies, fruit, mirrors, musical instruments, masks, even impassivity itself; all have their secondary meanings, and in Jane’s case, all are part of a narrative thread loose enough to free the visual imagination from the restraints of reason."
from Masking Reality by Anne Ellis
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Jane Sercombe Lewis quietly but obsessively produces work which is oblivious to fashion, trends or movements. Known principally as a painter, she is also an accomplished draughtswoman and printmaker.
Her painting technique is in part influenced by the artists of the early Italian and Northern European Renaissance and visits to Italy to study the ancient Roman art at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and Ostia have had a profound effect. Her response to this ancient art is one of recognition of its startlingly contemporary resonance - a modernity of expression and application of paint which speaks directly across the centuries and which finds echoes in her own work. But while Jane’s own working methods and materials could be seen as traditional, the subject matter is wide-ranging, challenging and of its time.
Her aim is to produce technically immaculate paintings and graphic works which often contain subversive imagery, a paradox intended to seduce then challenge the viewer. The human figures, animals and objects depicted convey a stillness and impression of time arrested - part of a personal, often surreal, narrative expressing an inner world and its relationship with an outer reality. More recently a significant part of Jane’s work has been concerned with the tragic plight of animals in the modern world, and its direct relationship to the ongoing destruction of our environment and its sentient inhabitants. This led to her producing a series of images entitled Earthlings which is now part of the permanent collection of the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Austria.
Born in London in 1953, Jane studied fine art at Hornsey College of Art (London) and the Slade School of Art UCL. Winner of the Slade Prize on graduation, on leaving college Jane was represented by Carol Mann, who was at that time an art historian and artist’s agent (later an author of books on art and on women’s politics). As a young artist, Jane showed regularly at the Curwen Gallery and other London galleries, worked for a while as a scenic artist for BBC Television, and went on to become full-time assistant lecturer to Bartolomeu dos Santos at the Slade School. She also taught at Watford, Harrow, Richmond (Surrey) and Leeds Colleges of Art and was a visiting lecturer at Reading University and Byam Shaw School of Art. An early turning point in her painting career was participating in the ground-breaking Women’s Images of Men exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1980. Showing in the exhibition's sequel Pandora’s Box while at the same time pursuing a twelve month residency with Kent Opera in 1985, gave her work the wider exposure needed to enable her to paint full-time and exhibit with the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery. In 1989 Kent Opera commissioned and published three paintings to commemorate their 20th Anniversary. She was later awarded a Fellowship in Drawing by the Henry Moore Foundation which attracted the attention of the Portal Gallery in London, where Jane exhibited from 1993 to 2013. She has received funding from Arts Council England and the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, and was commissioned by Standard Chartered Bank for their corporate collection. Jane’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the UK and also in Europe and the USA. Paintings and prints are in a number of public collections and numerous private collections and she continues to show regularly with the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Oslip, Austria, as well as occasionally opening her work-place Solitary Space Studio to collectors.
Articles about Jane’s work and reproductions of her images have appeared in art catalogues, books and periodicals which include The Sciences/USA, Mslexia Magazine/UK, Univers des Arts/France, Nouveau Magazine/Netherlands, Uptown Magazine/UK, Pastel Journal/USA, Faber & Faber, Paladin Books and significantly Bloodaxe Books, who reproduced her paintings on 22 on the covers of their poetry publications. She has written articles for The Artist, Artists & Illustrators, Photoshop Creative, The Jackdaw and Vegan Life magazines and been featured in online magazines Lavender Review, Lucky Compiler, Visionarios and Animal Culture as well as being interviewed for a number of Blogs. Her work is featured in A Singular Vision - Fifty Years of British Painting at The Portal Gallery/J. Wilder & L. Gascoigne (Prestel Books), Ingres in Fashion/A. Ribeiro (Yale University Press), Discovering Drawing/S. Mahan-Cox (Davis Publications), The Art of Compassion/L. Sanders & J. Goodall (Amazon Publications), Vegan Art – A Book of Visual Protest/T. Kane (HENI Publishing), Cats Rock – Felines in Contemporary Art and Pop Culture/E. Daley (Cernunnos Books), and her early work and biography is in part included in Nicholas Treadwell’s book Kiss My Art.
Jane has published limited edition prints independently and with Obsession Publishing (now Red Dot) UK and Christies Contemporary Art and is listed in: Who’s Who in Art 31st edition onwards (Hilmarton Manor Press); Dictionary of International Biography 32nd edition onwards (Cambridge-Melrose Press); The Cambridge Blue Book since 2005; and World Who’s Who of Women from 2009.
Additionally she has produced videos about her artwork, animal rights and her own family history which can be viewed on this website and on her YouTube channel @JaneLewisArtist.
from Masking Reality by Anne Ellis
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jane Sercombe Lewis quietly but obsessively produces work which is oblivious to fashion, trends or movements. Known principally as a painter, she is also an accomplished draughtswoman and printmaker.
Her painting technique is in part influenced by the artists of the early Italian and Northern European Renaissance and visits to Italy to study the ancient Roman art at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and Ostia have had a profound effect. Her response to this ancient art is one of recognition of its startlingly contemporary resonance - a modernity of expression and application of paint which speaks directly across the centuries and which finds echoes in her own work. But while Jane’s own working methods and materials could be seen as traditional, the subject matter is wide-ranging, challenging and of its time.
Her aim is to produce technically immaculate paintings and graphic works which often contain subversive imagery, a paradox intended to seduce then challenge the viewer. The human figures, animals and objects depicted convey a stillness and impression of time arrested - part of a personal, often surreal, narrative expressing an inner world and its relationship with an outer reality. More recently a significant part of Jane’s work has been concerned with the tragic plight of animals in the modern world, and its direct relationship to the ongoing destruction of our environment and its sentient inhabitants. This led to her producing a series of images entitled Earthlings which is now part of the permanent collection of the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Austria.
Born in London in 1953, Jane studied fine art at Hornsey College of Art (London) and the Slade School of Art UCL. Winner of the Slade Prize on graduation, on leaving college Jane was represented by Carol Mann, who was at that time an art historian and artist’s agent (later an author of books on art and on women’s politics). As a young artist, Jane showed regularly at the Curwen Gallery and other London galleries, worked for a while as a scenic artist for BBC Television, and went on to become full-time assistant lecturer to Bartolomeu dos Santos at the Slade School. She also taught at Watford, Harrow, Richmond (Surrey) and Leeds Colleges of Art and was a visiting lecturer at Reading University and Byam Shaw School of Art. An early turning point in her painting career was participating in the ground-breaking Women’s Images of Men exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1980. Showing in the exhibition's sequel Pandora’s Box while at the same time pursuing a twelve month residency with Kent Opera in 1985, gave her work the wider exposure needed to enable her to paint full-time and exhibit with the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery. In 1989 Kent Opera commissioned and published three paintings to commemorate their 20th Anniversary. She was later awarded a Fellowship in Drawing by the Henry Moore Foundation which attracted the attention of the Portal Gallery in London, where Jane exhibited from 1993 to 2013. She has received funding from Arts Council England and the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, and was commissioned by Standard Chartered Bank for their corporate collection. Jane’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the UK and also in Europe and the USA. Paintings and prints are in a number of public collections and numerous private collections and she continues to show regularly with the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Oslip, Austria, as well as occasionally opening her work-place Solitary Space Studio to collectors.
Articles about Jane’s work and reproductions of her images have appeared in art catalogues, books and periodicals which include The Sciences/USA, Mslexia Magazine/UK, Univers des Arts/France, Nouveau Magazine/Netherlands, Uptown Magazine/UK, Pastel Journal/USA, Faber & Faber, Paladin Books and significantly Bloodaxe Books, who reproduced her paintings on 22 on the covers of their poetry publications. She has written articles for The Artist, Artists & Illustrators, Photoshop Creative, The Jackdaw and Vegan Life magazines and been featured in online magazines Lavender Review, Lucky Compiler, Visionarios and Animal Culture as well as being interviewed for a number of Blogs. Her work is featured in A Singular Vision - Fifty Years of British Painting at The Portal Gallery/J. Wilder & L. Gascoigne (Prestel Books), Ingres in Fashion/A. Ribeiro (Yale University Press), Discovering Drawing/S. Mahan-Cox (Davis Publications), The Art of Compassion/L. Sanders & J. Goodall (Amazon Publications), Vegan Art – A Book of Visual Protest/T. Kane (HENI Publishing), Cats Rock – Felines in Contemporary Art and Pop Culture/E. Daley (Cernunnos Books), and her early work and biography is in part included in Nicholas Treadwell’s book Kiss My Art.
Jane has published limited edition prints independently and with Obsession Publishing (now Red Dot) UK and Christies Contemporary Art and is listed in: Who’s Who in Art 31st edition onwards (Hilmarton Manor Press); Dictionary of International Biography 32nd edition onwards (Cambridge-Melrose Press); The Cambridge Blue Book since 2005; and World Who’s Who of Women from 2009.
Additionally she has produced videos about her artwork, animal rights and her own family history which can be viewed on this website and on her YouTube channel @JaneLewisArtist.