Fundraising

Profile: Jane Perry, Artist 

I have created art ever since I can remember. It has been the one constant in my life providing me with comfort, solace and therapy.

I went to art school as a mature student because I really wanted to become a Potter, totally unrealistic now I look back. I had at the time been diagnosed with Crohns Disease which hugely impacted my health and work plans, so I had to change direction.

I have tried lots of different mediums, but each has had to be given up because of increasing physical limitations. When lockdown happened, like most people I sorted stuff out that had been lying around. I had a box of silk painting materials which hadn’t been opened for 9 years and I intended to throw it away. I don’t know what made me decide to try it again. I fitted a piece of silk to a frame, and sat in the garden not really expecting to create anything spectacular. I found that freedom liberating and, as I had no real design in mind, something magical happened.

Silk painting is a very different medium from others I’ve tried, in that you only have to touch the paint to the silk and it does the work for you. You can get some control of how the design turns out, but mainly it is a marriage between control and chaos.

I have been involved with Timebank for several years, even trying to set up a Timebank in Newport, and when I had the idea of turning the silk paintings into cards, it seemed a natural progression to create some for Timebank to firstly to put in their well being boxes and then to raise funds for them.