Inspiration for Jane’s tapestries comes from the inter-play between the natural contours of the landscape with shapes and patterns created by different crops in the changing seasons. The pieces are based on actual scenes and begin with several sketches on site.

Tapestry weaving is a slow process: time is taken to build the picture, starting at the bottom and working up to the top. This is both the joy and sometimes the frustration of the method as the pleasure and freedom of creating the picture, slowly building colours, shapes and textures can be tempered by the amount of time taken to achieve a relatively small amount. Jane uses a great variety of different yarns, mainly wool but also cotton, linen and rafia, blending thick and thin, course and fine together to gather the effect.

During her year as Surrey Artist of the Year, Jane has also explored new processes into her practice using different methods and incorporating new techniques to achieve challenging effects in the landscape tapestry. Jane says: “I am working on tapestries inspired by the Esso fuel pipeline which has cut swathes through the local countryside. This pipeline has provoked much negative reaction but from a purely artistic point of view it has provided opportunities to capture a moment in time before the pipeline returns to the field landscape as it was.”

Jane studied at the West Surrey College of Art & Design (now University for the Creative Arts) specialising in tapestry weaving. She was taught by the late eminent tapestry weaver Archie Brennan.