Behind the scenes - Jane Askey

5th July 2013: Welcome to the colourful paintings by Jane Askey - we immediately loved her fresh take on the subjects of still life and landscape, with flashes of neon and decorative elements. Meet Jane Askey, our Artist of the Month for July - we'd like to have joined her for a walk on this beach!

What's your favourite design/piece of work & why? My new paintings inspired by a trip to the Outer Hebrides. It’s a very special place I keep returning to. I was born in the Midlands and after living in a number of different places I’m back in the middle of England again. I crave to be by the sea so perhaps these paintings go some way towards connecting me to that place.

When designing your studio, what was the most important factor? To be true to what I like – colour, pattern and vintage finds. I have five different surfaces and four of them are an assortment of 1950s formica patterned tops I love them all. I collect lots of inspiration so there‘s good storage and display systems to contain my many books, pots, fabrics as well as my art materials.

What's been your best-selling design or piece of work to date? Big White Daisies has sold as a greetings card to three different companies and continues to be the image lots of people are drawn to.

 

Which part of the process do you like most? Generating new ideas and bringing new combinations of things together. Vintage fabrics, pots and jugs from car boots and charity shops. Creating a new combination of flowers against pattern or the landscape and trying new ways of interpreting them.

Which part do you like the least?! The process of re-creating an existing design. I don’t really enjoy re-working previous ideas as there can be few surprises and less creativity in this process.

What would your dream project be? To have paintings sold as prints / giftware in big stores that I admire like John Lewis, Anthropologie, Designers Guild, Paperchase.

Who or what is your biggest source of inspiration? The garden, exploring new places, walking by the sea / in the countryside. Also my collections of ceramics, fabrics and books and paintings by many artists but particularly Winifred Nicholson she captures the transience of flowers with wonderfully direct brushwork and a sublime use of colour.

Which is your favourite Yellow House Art Licensing artist & why? Sarah Jones I like the multi-layered printed quality. I trained in printed textiles and I also love the work of Robert Rauschenberg, Sarah’s work reminds me of his.

Which is your favourite Yellow House Art artist & why? (www.yellowhouseart.com – our sister site selling original artworks) Paul Thurby’s prints I love the graphic impact combined with textural interest their nod to 50s and 60s illustration and the humour. Y is for Yoga is a particular favourite.

Do you have your own work at home? Yes one or two paintings I don’t feel ready to let go of and then there are lots in the very high hallway which is a brilliant way of storing them before they go off to galleries.

What's been your biggest mistake/cock-up?! Not photographing high resolution / scanning original work before I sold it and then a card company asking to publish it. Big mistake, big regret.

What's on your drawing-board/ in your kiln / on your easel / etc. right now? New paintings about the English countryside and the lanes full to bursting with new green, new growth, white clouds and glimpses of blue skies -  trying to capture that sense of British summertime.

What is the last book you read? Marks out of 10? Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways [9/10] a beautifully written book where prose meets poetic expression combining his own experience of walking with fascinating facts and insights. Wild Ways by the same author is even better [10/10]. Both books make you want to walk and explore, to seek out the remote.

What is the last exhibition you went to? Marks out of 10? Winifred Nicholson at Kettle’s Yard 8/10 a beautiful exhibition but I would like to have seen more of her paintings especially ones that only appear in books, it’s so special to see a painting in reality.

If you could own a masterpiece, what would it be? A Matisse – Harmony in Red a wonderful reminder to be brave with colour and pattern, that huge field of red travelling across the table and the wall collapsing perspective and depth to dramatic effect. John Berger said of Matisse “He clashed his colours together like cymbals and the effect was like a lullaby”

What’s your proudest achievement? I can’t think of one specific thing however I am so happy to be able to spend my days doing something I love and if a design is published I have to be honest  it’s a real thrill see it out in the shops.

What’s been your biggest challenge? Deciding to leave the security of a full-time lecturing job it was a leap into the unknown. Happily I found part-time lecturing on textile degree courses and combined this with time in my studio.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and giving us more insight into your beautiful work Jane - We can see why you're a fan of Matisse & look forward to seeing lots more of your work licensed and for sale in the shops!