Jane Ray
by Michael Ball
Sitting in Jane Ray's tiny studio at the bottom of her garden, I find myself thinking about the nature of creativity, which is perhaps not surprising as Jane's luminous images, on the walls all around me, seem to almost breathe creativity.
Although you may not have heard of Jane, you will almost certainly have seen one of her illustrations - her work has been featured on numerous cards, notebooks, wrapping paper, and children's books.
As Jane is primarily a children's storybook illustrator, it's not surprising that much of her work features characters from fairy stories, myths and biblical tales, but what is remarkable is the life that she manages to impart into her paintings. Many of her designs have an evocative, dreamlike quality, as if the images themselves have come from the same archetypal source as the tales that they depict.
Although the style of Jane's work has changed significantly over the years, some elements such as stars set in a blue firmament and birds that appear like celestial messengers are recurring themes. Jane's sophisticated sense of colour and confident blending of decorative styles has ensured that her work appeals to many adults as much as it does to children.
"I work in watercolour mainly, but I also use watercolour pencils, collage, coloured inks and all sorts of things. I start with an initial pencil drawing and then work into that, building up layer upon layer of colour washes, detail and collage - it's quite a complex process."
Those who aspire to be illustrators can take encouragement from the fact that Jane had no formal education as an illustrator, but moved into illustration after taking a BA in 3D design (ceramics).
Jane's work was spotted at her degree show by greetings card and wrapping paper publisher Roger La Borde, who commissioned her to produce a series of four cards.
"I didn't earn a living from my early commissions. I went into teacher training and taught art, ceramics, painting and printing in hospitals and day centres on and off for about eight years. I found that having something in print - the series of four cards initially - meant that people took me a little bit more seriously, and I was able to gradually build up the illustration work."
"I went to lots of publishers, and worked my way through the writers and artists yearbook. I did quite a lot of book covers, posters and magazine illustrations, but I always wanted to do children's illustration and hoped that it would move towards that."
In 1987 Jane was commissioned to illustrate 'A Balloon for Grandad', which was followed by 'Noah's Ark' and 'The Story of the Creation'. Jane's illustrations met with critical acclaim in all three of these titles.
Since then Jane has been commissioned to illustrate dozens of children's books, and has recently starting writing as well as illustrating children's books. Her first book 'Can You Catch a Mermaid?' Was released in 2002.
As craftspeople we all have a need for inspiration; a need to listen to the creative spirit inside ourselves. With too little creativity, work can be laboured and dry no matter how much skill you may possess in your chosen medium. At the other extreme, you can find yourself with endless ideas but no sense of how to convert all that creativity into bread and butter.
Jane is unambiguous about creativity. "I never give up on a piece of work. I'm not very good at doing roughs. I can't bear putting all that energy into something that isn't going to be the finished thing. Any painting that I'm working on will change so much before it is completed. It is such a subtle process and I invest so much into each illustration that it has to work. I will go to enormous lengths to rescue a piece of work!"
"If you are interested in being an illustrator the best advice I can offer is that you make a habit of drawing and keep a sketchbook. I keep clippings from magazines, sketches and anything that comes to me. Now that I have children there aren't enough hours in the day, but I try to keep up the habit of drawing and writing. It's an invaluable resource - I have shelves of scrapbooks and I often find inspiration when I look back through them. Something that you were struggling with ten years ago can suddenly make sense. Just by leaving something alone it can mature and next time you see it, it falls into place. I'm a great believer in leaving things alone - sometimes you just have to leave things for a while."
