Bio

Jan's Artwork

As a small child I was obsessed with the wonderful flower fairy pictures of Cicely Mary Barker. I would spend hours trying to copy them and paint like her. This was the start of my arty adventures. As I grew up, marriage, parenthood and work pushed art right into the background. In my maturer years I was encouraged by an art teacher friend re-start painting. So I took myself off and did a 2 year art A level course. I loved it and I am still painting now! Not every day, sometimes not every week, but when I can.

My first love is using coloured pencils, a very slow medium. I love the way you can build up layers of colours and be very detailed. I also enjoy experimenting and trying out lots of other mediums and surfaces. I have painted on slate, canvas, furniture, with acrylics, watercolour, oil and inks, with paintbrushes, pencils, palette knives and pens. Sometimes successfully and sometimes not. I always return to coloured pencils though.

I love the natural world and love to sit and observe how petals, fur and feathers are formed and how many unexpected colours you can find and how they change in different lights. This is all part of my total enjoyment of painting.

Because my husband's mobility is restricted we just paint and draw what is around us, in the garden, local parks etc. Sometimes we use our photographs from past holidays - you can paint anything, anywhere. LOVE IT!!

Bio

Robin's Artwork

Robin's first love is cartoons. As a child he was fascinated by the Walt Disney cartoons and his artwork is very much influenced by them. He went on to make a career in art, firstly as a screen printer and then as a sign writer, poster writer and point-of-sale material. For the last 20 years of his working life he became self-employed and his work extended to include t-shirt designs, book illustrations, advertising designs and much more. When he retired he laid down his brushes and said, “Thats is it. I'm done. No more painting for me!” Not for long though! He soon joined me in community projects, going on to resume his own artwork.

Robin likes to draw and paint cartoons and has made many personalised greetings cards for people. He also likes to draw landscapes and buildings from around our local area. He prefers to use either graphite or charcoal, enjoying the strong dramatic effects he can capture in this medium,

The last 2 years have been difficult for him due to serious ill health. He also has mobility problems and a little difficulty with vision. As a result of this he has, at the moment, somewhat lost his mojo and confidence in his artwork. However, he is finding great comfort in creating zentangles. This is a form of doodling with structured patterns. Robin finds doodling very soothing and relaxing and he is able to de-stress and forget anxieties whilst concentrating on the patterns. He has very much developed his own personal style of doodling to incorporate his cartoons. Robin also likes the fact that he doesn't need to do any prepatory work, no planning, no inspiration to start. He just picks up a pen and paper and concentrating on just the next stroke wonderful patterns appear, Surprisingly, although his vision (hopefully temporary) is a little impaired he is able to doodle in very small detail. You can see some of Robin's doodles on our Gallery page.

If you haven't already done any zentangle art it could be something that you may like to consider to boost your own confidence and sense of well being.