Janet Gough is an Artist and Designer who after receiving an art scholarship to study at Dartington Hall School, graduated from Winchester School of Art BA(Hons). Janet then set up Hampshire Theatrical Wardrobe, a costume restoration and hire company for schools, colleges and theatres, involving teaching textiles and liaising with theatrical companies.
Janet went on to develop her own textile company, producing her own collection of multi-coloured hand-knitted sweaters and accessories, sold for the fashion market in the UK, USA, and Japan. First exhibiting through the Country Living Fair and The Chelsea Craft Fair London. She was then selected by the British Craft Council to exhibit her designs in New York and San Francisco. Janet’s textiles were wearable art; paintings constructed of yarn. The strong design element in her paintings is subconsciously influenced by the years worked as a successful textile designer. These hand-knitted garments became internationally collectable and sold through specialist galleries including: Julies Artisan Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York
Bernard Faber, San Francisco. Northern Possessions, Chicago. Black Swan, Frome UK and New Ashgate, Farnham UK. Janet considers that the process of handcrafting a jacket with over 100 yarn/colour combinations to be no different to constructing a painting. It’s only the technical knowledge in relationship to the craft/media that is different.
Janet currently lives and works from her home studio drawing inspiration from her surroundings nestled within the wilderness of the Hampshire countryside.
I feel my way through a painting, it’s a journey.
The excitement is not knowing where it will lead.
Through my daily walk in the woods, I love the profusion of the untamed. The tangled pattern of plants, flowers, trees. Nature’s haphazard growth, yet each individual leaf perfectly designed to play it’s part in the fragile balance, and harmony of the whole. I make mental ‘snapshots’ of ‘moments’ that light a spark. Like dappled light dancing through the overhead tree canopy, making giant paint like blobs beneath my feet. Although these trigger moments are usually visual, sometimes they filter through things I’m reading like a perfect sentence from a book. Or through music from a favourite song lyrics, I often ask myself how do you paint birdsong? Or the rustle of a small creature in the hedgerow?
The strong design element in my work is often subconsciously influenced by the years I worked as a successful textile designer. My hand-knitted garments became internationally collectable and sold through specialist galleries like:
Julies Artisan Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York
Bernard Faber, San Fransisco
Norther Possessions, Chicago
Black Swan, Frome UK
New Ashgate, Farnham UK
For me the process of handcrafting a jacket with over 100 yarn/colour combinations is no different to constructing a painting. It’s only the technical knowledge in relationship to the craft/media that’s different.
This connect to the element of collage in my recent work.
I paint large abstract sheets of energised pure colour. I then cut out birds, fish, fruit, leaves, which I see in the random brush strokes, in the past I have used string, silver leaf, beads, sweet wrappers or whatever the work has asked of me.
All these elements become interwoven and through personal interpretation, a narrative emerges, and dances like music colouring the art of composition in my paintings.