February 2nd 2023 – March 13th 2023
We have had Jane’s intricate stitch work in the gallery before and it holds a great sense of presence when experienced face to face.
Jane Woodhall pours herself into her creative works and is a woman of few words about her vast experience and skill with fabric, textile techniques and visual composition. Here is her artist statement:
“Allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. Some like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position.” – Robertson Davies
Jane considers this to be ‘A great description of the tatty peacocks tail of stuff I carry about with me.’
The exhibition is now installed and open to viewers. There is a feeling of vast spaciousness in the gallery as I stand in front of the works and allow them to take me by their gentle power, off to other lands – some familiar and some not.
I have filled this page with images of the works but they do truely need to be visited face to face, person to person to engage fully with the depth of insight Jane has invested the works with. Here are some glimpses.
These works are detailed on the gallery web shop. Take advantage of the great little image magnifier to zoom into the surfaces of these works and see in close up detail the stitching and layering that Jane has developed into every surface. This is hard to see from broad brush images so do snoop inside with the magic magnifier. The works can be purchased through there.
Included in the Shreds and Patches Collection are three theatrical masks. These are personal expressions of a form that Jane has worked with in her career in the Theatre. Built from intricate layers of fabric, wires and threads from Plaster of Paris face moulds these masks are designed to each evoke a different important aspect of Jane’s world. I will detail one here and the other two on Jane’s gallery artist webpage https://fromoutofthebluestudiogallery.com/jane-woodhall/
The largest part of the selection of works that Jane has created for Shreds and Patches are further works in her Te Horo Series. Jane describes making this series:
Te Horo Beach series
I love the beautiful wild landscapes which surrounded my childhood in Central Otago and, now that my children have grown up, I live on the wild and beautiful northern end of the Kapiti Coast, where I have the same colours and wide-open skies to guide my work.
During various COVID lockdowns I tried to express this loveliness in a simplified way using the resources I had to hand in the Te Horo series.
Jane Woodhall.
Jane’s works are all displayed in further details on the gallery web shop pages. Just select the artist to search by, choose Jane Woodhall and the works are there for you to see more about.
Check out more about Jane at https://www.woodhall.co.nz/