Jane Higginbottom

Artist statement

Concepts
Jane likes to work mainly in stone, carving straight into it without a preconception of the finished piece; taking suggestions from plant or human forms. She allows the innate quality that the stone contains, help form the piece. A recent commission, a wedding present from groom to bride, worked with two forms, interconnected yet separate and took the leaf/pod shapes Jane had been working with into further abstraction.

For the piece 'Axe' she wrote, the cover of the book I was given to work from, 'Axe' by Ed McBain, has the image of an axe stuck into a log. This reminded me about an ancient axe-head that I saw in Sardinia. This developed into an idea for a stone carving inspired by the form of an axe-head, lying in a bowl shaped piece of carved wood. I want to transform the aggressive image on the book cover into something more resonant.

Jane also makes paintings about the sense of place of an object in a landscape. For example standing stones, stone buildings, beach huts. Particularly this is in regard to their situation in, and relationship to, the landscape and light.

Processes and techniques
When stone carving Jane works mainly with hand tools to cut the stone.  The work is usually on a small scale and made in the studio, although recently she assisted on a woodcarving project, carving oak tree trunks into totem poles for a local community group.  She works in a variety of stone from marble to granite.

Her paintings are oil on canvas although she is currently thinking of changing her painting technique.

She has also recently trained in chainsaw carving in order to work on larger wood carving projects such as community benches.

Influences
Landscape, archeology, pictish, plants, human energy fields

Career path
Jane trained as a painter at Camberwell Art College (BA Hons degree) and since moving into sculpture has done a part-time course at City and Guilds College, Kennington, as well as working with the sculptor Pat Rae.

She has exhibited in many group exhibitions, including most recently, 'Booked', an exhibition by Bilco at Hall Place, Bexley. She also has sculptures at Broomhill Art Hotel, N. Devon.

For the last two summers she has been a resident artist in Skyros, Greece, carving local marble.

Jane has also had a lot of teaching experience including many workshops for Arts Express - a charity she helped to set up in 1999.

She has recently set up the group Contact Arts and has completed a pebble mosaic 'Komodo' for Bellenden Renewal Scheme.

In 2005 she will be carving panels for the flood defence walls in Bewdley, Worcestershire.