About Jane

A painter and an illustrator, Jane Daniell discovered printmaking ten years ago, and found that it lent itself perfectly to her very oneiric style. Jane works purely from her imagination, and takes inspiration from artists like Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, and more modern illustrators such as Maurice Sendak and Errol le Cain.

Jane has illustrated several of Shakespeare’s plays, and her images have been sold at the Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and several international venues. Theatre and drama have always been a strong source of inspiration, and Jane tries to express in her work the magical and the impossible in the way it is often conveyed in contemporary immersive theatre productions, especially through the eyes of a child.

The process of making the plate takes second place to the drawing of the image, which can take Jane several weeks. No detail should be omitted. “It is as if I were in the picture, and in walking through the scene, I am observing all of its intimacy and minutiae, and like a child, find all are of equal importance to me.” The children she portrays evolve in their own world, which is separate to the world we perceive as adults. They see it through wise eyes and seem to have full understanding of its magic and fantasy, all of which we have forgotten as we grew older and learned to “put away childish things”.

Jane is co-chair of the Printmakers Council. Her work has won numerous awards and is regularly exhibited.


An interview with the artist

I work for an education consultancy doing admin – have also built all their websites and design leaflets etc.

I fell in love with visual creation when my art teacher played Sibelius’s ‘Swan of Tuonela’ to us in an art class.  I drew a very expressive tree and found it cathartic.

It’s always a real pleasure when people I don’t know buy my stuff.

I wanted to keep the originals in those days and it seemed a way of getting myself ‘out there’.

It is my life’s blood.

It can be a word or a phrase that brings to mind an image. I am also inspired my nursery rhymes and stories.

Love of detail, mixed with the hopes that my work evokes something in people. I am not clear on this as I don’t aim to have an effect.

I very briefly wanted to be a doctor.

It is an artist’s cooperative and we basically sell each other’s work. It requires a gallery sitting once every 4 weeks. I am currently Chair. I also built their website and maintain it as well as being involved in publicity. We have a few joint exhibitions.

My etching needle which is handmade using a sewing needle in a holder and is finer than you can buy.

It is what makes me happy.

My natural mother who I met when I was 40 is a really good potter.

My subject matter and execution is unique to me.

If you mean art-wise. I haven’t had it yet but I feel good whenever I sell something. In my life it was my daughter qualifying as a vet.

Painting – very smooth board for detail, small brushes for the same reason and gouache paint because I like it. Etching – smallest needle imaginable for fine detail, zinc plate, because it’s an option to use a hard ground and aquatint.

Children’s book illustration.

Reading, Travelling, keeping fit. I also have a voluntary job which involves caring for people in person and on the phone.

I like Picasso, Jan van Eyck and his brothers and many more.

Well someone once said that my work was beautifully framed which made me laugh. Someone also once stole a piece of my artwork which was immensely flattering.

The diversity and some of the people.

My goal is just to carry on getting better and better. My dream is to achieve something I am wholly happy with (it would have to be perfect).

Artistically I think it was that other people don’t see your mistakes.

The Woman’s University Club.

I have won the Public’s Choice (2014) Best in Show, Hampstead School of Art (2010) and 1st Prize for etching and Real Art for Real People (2004). I felt very excited as if something was starting for me (fame and fortune) (it wasn’t!)

I don’t think it has a deeper meaning. Carl Jung said “…because the creative aspect of life which finds its clearest expression in art baffles all attempts at rational formulation. Any reaction to stimulus may be causally explained; but the creative act, which is the absolute antithesis of mere reaction, will forever elude the human understanding. It can only be described in its manifestations; it can be obscurely sensed, but never wholly grasped.” I think this answers that question.

To make art accessible whether it be a social comment or subjective.

Many feel they can interpret an artist’s work. I feel this is best done by the individual onlooker. Too much telling people what they should be thinking is not appropriate and seems to add monetary value to some work that is arbitrary.

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Please send me a message if you’d like to ask a question I’ve not answered here, commission an artwork, or just send me some feedback.

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