JANE SMITH

Jane Smith is a photographer/image maker who is passionate about “Collections” an interest running for more than 30 years. It started at University where she specialised in large format 5x4 studio photography, which ignited her fascination, meticulously, arranging objects in front of the camera. Initially looking at contrasts of objects of desire and then being inspired by Collections and collating props together creating interesting and beautiful compositions.

Jane’s areas of interests vary from Collections of Lego minifigures, retro toys to tea cards and graphics on food packaging, inspired by a lifelong love of Pop Art in particluar Andy Warhol, Peter Blake and Man Ray.

Jane is fascinated by the graphics on food packaging and the power of brands. How they become part of people childhood memories and are so reminiscent of a time in history. These are ever changing and bring different emotions to different people even as they change over the years. In 2018 and Lockdown, Jane worked on a project drawn from her interest in Photograms, looking at leaf structures and colours in life, these are a range of images created using a cameraless photographic technique showing inverted colours. All these images are peaceful botanical prints that create eye-catching, timeless artwork that can fit well in any room of the house and look especially good in groups.

Jane’s images continue the “Collections” theme, in which the visual repetition of small, neatly arranged objects within a type box continues to fascinate Jane, representing bringing order to the chaos and when we are used to seeing Lego mini figure strewn across the floor with no heads and partially complete, the lined up, ordered Legomen allow the viewer to really see the beauty in each object and the satisfying order, brings peace and serenity.

In 2023 Jane has been working in a new medium and is now absorbed in collage, this has enabled her to develop the Collections idea and take it further, broadening subject matter, whilst developing the continued interested with both Collections and typeboxes. Enjoying sourcing and collating imagery via several new sources such as, photography from life, vintage and current magazines/newspapers and eclectic new visuals from free online sources.

Jane has created new collage images on the theme “Collections”, Winston’s World, Wonders of Woodstock, Vase of Versailles, Marvel of St Mary’s and now a new one called the Radiance of Radcliffe. These artworks are new ideas based on a collection of items discovered on multiple trips noticing the recognisable and sometimes the unusual details of a place or building, to create detailed and eye-catching artworks.

The Wonders of Woodstock image won 2nd prize in the Oxon Museum Discovery Art Exhibition 2023 and is now on show in the Woodstock Oxon Museum, Coach house as part of a recent collaboration with the Museum. In 2024 Jane created a new collage for the “Art on Conflict” exhibition called “Fragments of the Fallen” which was on show in the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum during the exhibition in 2024, the Museum now stock and sell limited edition prints and cards of the print.

The full range is on display on my website