University of Salford   2008/2009

Jane Walker

It is only recently that I have returned to oil painting, after working on paper for 10 years, and it is this change that has highlighted a murky confusion of ideas in my work. I would like to use this opportunity to work through this.

I draw cities, currently starting with Sheffield buildings, I move the buildings around and invent places. When I was working on paper, I started with English watercolour paper which is like cardboard and moved to thinner, very delicate looking Japanese paper- a metaphor for how fragile, thin civilisation is, how easily it is torn. This thinness of painting and that my paintings are on textiles has always concerned me; but it is very hidden within my artistic language. I think my work would be stronger if it were brought more to the fore, and the relationship of the drawing to the support were more considered.

I want to work in textiles, in the fibre department to practice and be familiar with textiles/fibre as a discipline and the history of textiles in a location where it has been important. I do really like materials, but I would like to use them to express tension, and uncomfortable states.

I want to work out the degree of audience participation in painting/ drawing. I need to find a way of relating painting on canvas to drawing. To prevent painting from being an exercise in formalism I retain imagery, some of it from lens based sources. Looking at the place of textiles in society in a place where they have a history of being made. I am particularly interested in expressive qualities- tension, wear and tear, aging, violence, damage.

Jane's AA2A story is featured in the publication 'More Artists' Stories'