Jane Smith
Jane is an artist and illustrator based in east London. She loves drawing and has been doing it ever since she could hold a pencil. After completing a Foundation Course in York, she graduated from Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic (now University of Northumbria) with a BA (hons) in Graphic design and then moved down to London a few months later in 1985. Quite by chance she found herself working for the BBC Radio Times Magazine, as a temporary junior layout artist.
As a would-be illustrator, her colleagues began to commission her to do illustrations for the magazine, quite often in wood engraving, linocut and scraperboard. This eventually led to a freelance illustration career that has lasted until the present day. Her previous clients include Marks and Spencer, Jamie Oliver, Ted Baker, Greenpeace and many others. She exhibits widely in galleries, cafés and shops around London.
Jane currently runs monthly linocut workshops for the staff at Facebook and they are proving to be very popular. She also run workshops in various other places on request.
In her personal work, aside from the illustration, she has travelled widely, often going off with her rucksack, walking boots and sketchbooks for three months at a time, all over the world. These days she concentrates on Europe and the UK. She never goes anywhere without at least a small sketchbook in her pocket. If she is away for more than a couple of days, she will pack a variety of sketchbooks and art materials, a box of watercolours and a few pens and brushes.
To her there is nothing better than sitting sketching outside a café somewhere, with a nice coffee or cold beer, totally in the ‘zone’, with the sounds, smells and general ambiance of life going by, whether in a back street in Naples, or the beautiful countryside of South West France.
.
