Jane Blair

Sometimes described as pastoral, Jane Blair’s work is inspired by her immediate surroundings. Jane is fascinated by those fleeting moments when changes of light or movement of form transform the everyday to the remarkable.  She likes drama…from the spectacle of a group of black Highland sheep silhouetted against a frosty winter field or the explosion of light and colour as a squall hits a beach on an island in the Outer Hebrides.

‘In my studio I’ll study the many images I’ve photographed and will often use several as material for the finished piece work, capturing the essence of place…the icy wind.. the smell of wet earth… wild seas…the stage posturing of an isolated beast in a field. Always avoiding the sentimental and trying to capture the dignity of these “living sculptures”.

I work mainly with oil on canvas without any preparatory drawings. I find laborious preliminaries can dilute any immediacy or instinctive actions, making work contrived and soulless.’

Jane Blair trained at Edinburgh College of Art from 1976-1980 and graduated with a Diploma in Art & Design in Theatre Costume and Fashion. She has exhibited at Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and was  Awarded the Andrew Grant Travel Scholarship in 1980.

1981         Craftsman in Residence , Irvine
1981-1986    Designer for Borderline Theatre Company
1986-1990    Various freelance Design jobs in theatre and TV
Window designer for ‘The Warehouse’ .
Glasgow Book Illustration
Extensive Private commissions
2000-07       Art Tutor, National Schizophrenia Fellowship

Has exhibited extensively in Galleries and Art Fairs, including:
Glasgow Art Fair
The Affordable Art Fair, London
Spring Fling
Gracefield Arts Centre
Time Gallery,  Thornhill
The Whitehouse Gallery, Kirkcudbright
Vibrant Art Gallery, Stow on the Wold
Pink Gallery, Helensburgh
The Cairns  Gallery, Peebles
Annan Gallery, Glasgow
The Whitehouse Gallery, Kirkcudbright