Art2Muse

Jane Donaldson is a self taught artist who began painting in 2008 following the entry of her youngest child into primary school. Her initial efforts to reinvent her life as a stay at home mum have flourished as her work is now held in private collections and is commissioned throughout the eastern states of Australia. Jane resides on rural acreage near Stanthorpe in southern Queensland with her husband and three children and divides her time between creating on the canvas, the garden, the kitchen table and in her family.

Recurrent themes of relationships find their way onto her canvases - the interconnectedness of memory and dream with both the real and imagined self; the motives that drive us to be who we are and the experiences and thoughts that cause us to stumble or still ourselves; the divinity of human nature and the possibilities that await us; our intrinsic connectedness to the birds and flight and fluidity; the quandaries of the mind and the heart and the whys and hows that sit at the back of our consciousness and evidence themselves in our behaviours.

The symbolism of warm red hearts, of birds and animals, rain and of strung out lines echo through many of the works and speak of a belief that we are composed of a great deal more than what a first glance tells and that the mind and the heart are a complex and tangled machine worthy of unravelling and examining.

With an intuitive and irrepressible love of colour and line, Jane’s naïve style of painting belies a carefully considered composition and an appreciation for the sophisticated nature of human interaction and thought. She has adopted a practice that relies on looking inward and depends on a detachment of conscious thought in preference for the instinctive, emotive application of colour; a closing of the eyes and an opening of the internal vision in order to liberate the rainbow of colour and narrative that plays on the mind.

Paul Gauguin said, “I close my eyes in order to see.”

Selected Exhibitions

2012

Here in Spirit, Crows Nest Regional Art Gallery, Crows Nest
Surveying the Southern Downs, Blockwork Gallery, Toowoomba

The Balmain Art & Craft Show, Sydney

Myart Spring Art Competition, Murrays Art and Framing, Toowoomba

Art on Amiens, Nest Gallery, Aimens

Gourmet in Gundy, Fairway Studios, Goodiwindi

I Heart Art Show, Narromine

Art Melbourne 2012 with Art2Muse Gallery

The Australian Affordable Art Exhibition, David Hart Galleries

2011

The Balmain Art & Craft Show (feature artist), Sydney

Solo Exhibition, Art2muse Gallery, Sydney

Gourmet in Gundy, Goondiwindi

Weengallon Pink Ladies Day Charity Auction, Weengallon

Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, Art2muse Online Gallery, Sydney

Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, Sydney
Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney

2010
'Faces & Places' Nest Gallery Warwick
'Jazz Up Your Nest' Fledge Design Studio Warwick
'Art in the Woolshed' Bendee Woolshed Stanthorpe
'Aspects Art Show' Goondiwindi
'Different Place, Different Time' Percolator Gallery Brisbane

2009
'Gourmet in Gundy' Fairway Studios Goondiwindi
'Aquisitive Painting Prize' Crows Nest Regional Art Gallery
'Aspects Art Show' Goondiwindi

2008
'Rio Tinto Alcan Martin Hanson Memorial Art Awards and Exhibition' Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum
'Inspiral' Crows Nest Regional Art Gallery
'Flying Arts Regional Art Awards' Brisbane
'Out There' Longreach Qantas Founders Museum
'Blackall Heartland Show and Sale' 'Longreach Qantas Founders Museum
'Roma Easter Art Show' Roma

Collections

2008
Brian Tucker Collection

Private Commissions

2009
'Dalkeith'
'Warwick'
'Only What You See'
'Mend It'
'Channel Country'
'In Me'

2008
'Blackall'
'We Three Picked Me'

Awards

2010
Aspects Art Show $750 Acquisition Prize

2009
Aspects Art Show $1000 Acquisition Prize
Aspects Art Show $750 Acquisition Prize

2008
Flying Arts Bank of Queensland Youth $2000 Acquisition Prize