Jane Whiting spent the 70s working as a shift worker, with a lot of spare time during the day. She decided she needed a hobby and so contacted the Glenfield Community Centre and started weekly art lessons. Oil painting with Ida Eisse started her journey which then led to night school at Northcote College and Westlake Boys, while she worked day shifts.
Her earlier years were spent being creative in the garage with her Dad in the evenings where he would make wooden things and she would use his leftovers to make puppets, hammer all his nails into wood for ships and so on. She would go after school to his hat factory in Takapuna where they made school hats, and millinery was very much in fashion. Years later, Jane opened a hat shop after returning from the South Island. She trimmed all her own hats until she started having children, when the family moved to Waiheke Island.
All her work sold and colleagues and family started ordering paintings. While doing her OE in 1979, Jane studied and visited the art galleries and museums of Europe and Britain, then later travelled to the South Island on a working holiday, where she was inspired to paint in oils again.
While working as school secretary at Waiheke High School in 1990, the opportunity to attend a summer school at Waikato University with Lois McIvor became a turning point; she moved from a representational process to abstract, exploring colour and feelings. Jane also began to experiment with glazing and texture.
Contact Jane via her facebook page here.
