The Art of Jane Blackmore
Jane Blackmore has an innate understanding that what not rendered is as important as what is, and within her works the viewer is constantly challenged to interpret and reinterpret what they see.
There is a narrative beneath the surface of all her works. Both enticing and remote, we are reminded that our role as viewers of Blackmores’ landscapes is emotional rather than physical.
It is this emotional content to the works that makes them surprisingly unsettling; often they trouble the viewer with a tangible sense of loss or absence, as though something has just happened but we are seconds too late to see it.
The artist shows us the ocean just before or after the sunrise, or reflecting the brilliant light of an absent moon; we see the tremulous wake of a ship, but never the burst of energy created by the ship’s engine; Slivers of light appear on the horizon alluding to a future we can only imagine.These are landscapes of the mind. Both deeply personal, yet candidly frank. We get the sense that we know these places, that they are somehow part of more than the artist’s vision, but of our own too.
Words by Therese Lloyd - New Zealand Award winning poet & writer
About Jane
Born in Rotorua 1973, Jane moved to Nelson where she spent the majority of her formative years. She now resides in Seatoun, Wellington where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Jane has been painting since 1996 and graduated in Nelson with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2002. She has exhibited in over 20 individual and group shows alongside renowned artists such as Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere and Toss Woollaston.
Jane was awarded first prize in the New Zealand National Women’s Art Exhibition in 2007 and continues to gain critical acclaim for her artwork. Jane also won the 2011 Cliftons Art Prize for her work "This distance between...us.
She sells her work in major galleries throughout New Zealand and has international clients in Australia, Asia, UK, Europe and the USA.
Jane is also an art teacher who specialises in oil painting at tertiary institutions in Wellington. She continues to develop her skills with oil and acrylic from her studio in Shelly Bay, Wellington.
