JANE FRANCIS is a Victoria, Canada based artist who has finally given painting its due after an early life start in art school evolved into a long career in graphic design. While her art studies have spanned decades, since leaving graphic design she’s completed the Independent Studies Program at the Vancouver Island School of Art and done residencies at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts and the Visual Arts Centre in Montreal. Most recently, she has completed two years at the London, UK based Turps Correspondence Course, an online programme that pairs painters with mentors who provide written reviews. Francis has also instigated pop-up exhibitions at the Baumann Centre and the Belfry Theatre, as well as shown work at the Little Fernwood Gallery, Metchosin ArtPod Gallery, Slide Room Gallery, Victoria Arts Council Gallery and Sooke Fine Arts Show.
StatementMy current work is based on the memory of shapes, forms, and objects to explore unseen life forces in subjects like bones, cocoons, and chandeliers. Working in a neutral palette with graphite or paint, on paper, wood, or canvas, I tend to confront liveliness on a large scale. I make physical gestures where my body is fully engaged; I reach, twist, turn, pull and stretch – to make uninterrupted marks that leave a kinetic record of gestural abstraction.
