“Art does not imitate nature, it imitates a creation, sometimes to propose an alternative world, sometimes simply to amplify, to confirm, to make social the brief hope offered by nature” *
Statement
Jane Bottery is a contemporary abstract artist making work that communicates a meditative sense of space and light, influenced by the sensation of being in landscape and the natural world.
She constructs drawings with folded, coloured tracing paper where the starting point for the work is a memory and experience of place, of landscape, of light and air, of human intervention, of atmosphere and concludes with an object that has captured and distilled these sensations into a single presence.
Her work is concerned with the exploration of minimalism, of delicate, restrained, translucent colour, with balance of space and exploration of form, with the treatment of surface and use of chance to determine the passage of work. The artist Agnes Martin has been a major influence and other artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Diebenkorn, Gwen John, Rebecca Salter, Callum Innes and John Cage inform the work.
The physicality of her chosen materials and how it feels to work with them is an important element of her practice as is the effect of juxtaposed and layered colours and how the materials respond to a desire to reduce and refine and achieve a lightness of touch.
The process involves an individual piece of tracing paper which is folded and unfolded, colour slowly added and removed, layers of delicate drawing are revealed and hidden, a balance between shapes, colours and translucency is built up and reduced, unworked spaces remain. Colour is absorbed and smoothed, folds, concave or convex, sharp or soft, create a map of lines and ridges. Both sides of the paper have equal importance adding to the sense of depth and translucency.
Guided by intuition, this process continues slowly, over time to create a glowing patina. Finally the whole piece is folded over and in on itself to create a three-dimensional drawing. The external and internal spaces become a play between what is revealed and what is concealed.
The materials have a surprising resiliency and the contrast between this and the delicate effect is compelling. Her aim is to make works that are simple yet complex. Work is made in series to that each piece is influenced by and relates back to previous work, reflecting how the experience of time spent in a landscape evolves. Using the materials in the way that she does creates a soft, blurred and glowing effect which evokes those experiences.
Conveying the feeling of being in the natural world, especially in places that are open, flat and spacious is important to the artist - the objects she creates are a representation of that feeling and have a quietness and space for reflection in a way that resonates rather than describes. The end result is tentative, a perhaps incomplete appeal, an attempt to transform the instantaneous into the permanent, a message of hopeful connection.
* John Berger, quoted in John Berger Ways of Learning by Iona Heath, OUP 2024
Biography
Jane Bottery originally studied Graphic Design in Manchester, and then worked in the charity sector. She returned to study Fine Art as a mature student, graduating first class from the University of Hertfordshire in 2016. Since then she has completed a five-year fellowship with Digswell Arts Trust and now works from a studio in north London.
She grew up in Cheshire, on the Cheshire plain, in a small market town, where she experienced the view across the flat landscape toward the Peak District to the east and the Welsh hills to the west. She remembers that there was something about being surrounded by wide open spaces and distant views which has stayed with her and very much informs the work.
Exhibitions include Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Handbag Factory, London, University College Hospital London Arts, Royal West of England Academy, One Paved Court, London, Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington, Wells Art Contemporary, Southwark Park Gallery, London, Linden Hall Gallery, Deal, and Broadway Gallery Letchworth.
Jane Bottery (b 1961 Manchester, UK) studied Foundation and Communication Arts at Manchester Polytechnic (1983) and Fine Art at University of Hertfordshire (2016) Digswell Arts Trust Fellow (2023)
Photo: Gimara Duncan Rice