My work has always been about putting small pieces together and overlapping to add depth or make a larger piece. The basic materials have changed over time from etching with Chine colle to beach plastic assemblages to collages using paper memorabilia: stamps, sweet wrappers, tickets, old maps or letters to watercolours. Now I am reinvestigating the use of fabrics and wax. I like to use old, cotton fabric that is dyed and waxed with beeswax. The pieces are knotted or stitched together with linen thread, the kind used by book-binders.

After many years of abstract work I am now looking outside at the world around me, influenced by dreams and memories and making portraits sometimes of people, occasionally animals or birds, creating a family in my studio. I never know who is going to arrive until they are here.

A Fine Art Graduate from Reading University, I taught Art, painting and printmaking, in schools and colleges in London for many years. For two and a half years I lived in the USA studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts and this experience influenced my work away from realism into abstraction. Much inspiration is found looking at Hans Hofmann, Anne Ryan, Paul Klee, Sean Scully, Gees Bend Quilters and Japanese Boro pieced work.

Elected a full Member of the South West Academy (SWAc) in 2019.

Contact

Email info@janetmitchell.co.uk

Links

  • artspaces - Annie Bowie Gallery
  • Totnes and Dartington Open Studios
  • The South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts
  • Solo Exhibitions

  • 2017   'Paintbox' Watercolour and Collage at Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
  • 2012   'GridWorks' Collages at the Flavel Dartmouth
  • 2004   'Paper or Plastic' Assemblages and Prints Braintree, Essex
  • 2001   'Recollections' Collages and Prints Henley Management College
  • 2000   'Away from Home' Collages and Prints Riverside Gallery Richmond
  • Selected Group Exhibitions Exhibitions

  • 2019-18-17-16   SWAc Open at Exeter Castle
  • 2019-17-16-15-14-13 Royal West of England Academy Open, Bristol
  • 2019   Green Hill Arts Open, Moretonhampstead
  • 2019   RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition, Bankside London
  • 2018   SWAc at Thelma Hulbert Gallery Honiton
  • 2017   3 Painters Birdwood House, Totnes
  • 2018-17  SWAc at Delamore Arts, Cornwood
  • 2016-10-09-07 Thelma Hulbert Gallery Honiton Open
  • 2016-15-13-07 Ecover Cover Exhibition (voted visitors' choice 2007)
  • 2016   SWAc at Delamore Arts, Cornwood
  • 2016   Dartmoor Open, Green Hill Arts, Moretonhampstead
  • 2015   3 Painters Birdwood House, Totnes
  • 2015   WVWG Gallery Walthamstow Village, London
  • 2014   Royal Watercolour Society Open, Bankside London
  • 2014   South West Academy Open, St. Stephens Exeter
  • 2014   Baxters Gallery, Dartmouth
  • 2013   South West Academy Annual Open, Gloss Gallery, Exeter
  • 2013   3 Painters, Birdwood House, Totnes
  • 2012   The Great Create Festival of Arts, Greenway, Brixham
  • 2008   Affordable Art Fair Battersea (Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth)
  • 2007   'Plastic Fantastic' Turnpike Gallery, Greater Manchester
  • 2006   '50/50' University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton
  • 2006   'Full Spectrum' Sherborne House, Dorset
  • 2003-1995 Society of Wood Engravers Annual Touring Exhibitions
  • 2002   National Print Exhibition Mall Galleries London
  • 1999   Summer Exhibition Royal Academy, London
  • 1995   Open Exhibition of Relief Prints Oxford University
  • 1994   National Print Exhibition Mall Galleries, London
  • 1994   Summer Exhibition Royal Academy, London
  • Public Purchase

  • Braintree Museum, Essex
  • Boston University, Massachusetts USA
  • Print Club of Albany, New York, USA
  • Work in private collections in UK, Europe, USA and Australia