Jane Gerwitz creates artwork on a wide range of subjects from the serious to the wacky. Born and brought up in London, she moved to the Bradford area in 1976 after studying painting and sculpture at teacher training college in Newcastle. She completed an art foundation course at Bradford College with distinction in 1998, followed by an honours degree in Graphic Design at Leeds Beckett University, specialising in Illustration.
Jane has worked as a freelance illustrator and artist since 1991, creating illustrations that have featured on websites, in magazines, books, stationery and in various educational publications for children. Whilst freelancing, she worked for 10 years as an art college lecturer both full time and part time at Shipley and Keighley Colleges.
In the past Jane’s work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Association of Illustrators gallery in London, the Bradford Open, the Bradford Design Exchange and other galleries in the area. In the last few years Jane has been selling prints, original artwork and greeting cards in outlets such as the Bingley Gallery and the Handmade Alternative shop now in Godwin Street, Bradford.
Jane usually works in watercolour, pencil, crayon and oils. She often mixes media such as using pencil crayon with watercolour, drawing with charcoal and Tippex and also enjoys using oil paint. Her favourite subjects are pictorial maps, panoramas, architecture, imaginary buildings (particularly precarious ones), birds, recycling and machines. Ideas are often triggered by music, words and memory, rather than directly from what she sees in front of her. So work ranges from rather eccentric images, such as an oil painting inspired by a Talking Heads song, to the line drawing of the personal view of ‘Bradford Before the Hole’ (see image below) and quirky pictures of ‘ducks’ and other characters.
The original ink drawing for Bradford Before the Hole was made years ago when I was a student at Bradford College. I wanted to create a panorama of what I felt about Bradford with its roads tumbling into the city centre, buzz of activity in the streets and many of the important architectural features and buildings. I have been selling prints of this drawing ever since I made it.
Recently Jane has been experimenting with oil transfer drawings and with paper-cutting and silhouettes, creating small pieces inspired by ‘Wuthering Heights‘ and Hallowe’en. Jane has also returned to the subject of Bradford, which has been triggered by her weekly visits to the city centre observing and illustrating the often overlooked small architectural details on the older buildings.
(With thanks to Jane Gerwitz for her permission to use the images shown above).
Artists website: http://www.janegerwitz.com/