Jane Fielder trained initially as a teacher, and later studied art, including Textile Design at Bradford & Ilkley Community College. She left teaching in 1999 to concentrate on painting. She was a previous owner of ‘The Bingley Gallery’ at 29a Park Road, Bingley, and her work and that of other local artists can still be found on display and for sale there.
She is an active member of Aire Valley Arts, a group formed in 1995 to improve the status of the visual arts in the area, organise exhibitions and act as a mutually supportive arts association. She says of this:
In 1995 I answered an advert in The Keighley News looking for adventurous artists, the result of which has been life changing. Meeting and forming Aire Valley Arts enabled me to transition from a solitary painter to a professional artist, giving me the confidence to show my work in local and international exhibitions, leading me to open my own gallery in 2004.
I ran The Bingley Gallery until 2019, handing over the reins in 2019 to David Starley, who has a permanent selection of my work on show. To my delight I have collections throughout England and Europe and as far afield as New Zealand and Bermuda.
‘Contented Cows Bingley, from Sleningford Road’.
Highlights of her career include regular solo exhibitions at Duncan Campbell Gallery, London; appearing on the plinth for Anthony Gormley’s One and Other Show at Trafalgar Square in 2009; her 2015 solo exhibition at Gallery 8 in Shanghai following a three week residency in China; finalist in the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014 and 2020 (exhibited at The Mall Galleries, London); selections for The Millinery Works Contemporary British Artists Show (Islington, London) 2015; and in 2020 she had two pieces selected for the ING Discerning Eye.
‘LOCKDOWN – The Night Pollution Slept, Bingley’.
Her work often features the urban landscape of the Aire Valley. She has said of this:
“On a bright day I can look across the never ending rows of terraces with their chimneys casting black shadows, echoed by the vast mill chimneys, highlighted only by rows of billowing washing and bras the size of windows, and think it is the most wonderful place in the world”!
‘The Perfect Prize’.
Images above by courtesy of Jane Fielder: prints available for sale; see artist’s website below.
Jane and her work features in the booklet ‘The Spirit of Bradford. 18 Artists and a City’ published by Aire Valley Arts, 1997. ISBN 0/9530934/0/0
Email janefielder@hotmail.com
Instagram fielder.jane
Website janefielder.com