https://twitter.com/janeostler
https://www.facebook.com/jane.ostler.1
https://www.instagram.com/dittledinglingdin/
https://www.axisweb.org/p/janeostler/
https://www.saatchiart.com/janeostler
Jane Ostler is an artist who has been working for the last 17 years as an art facilitator. In 2024 she showed in her first major solo show, "Finding the Hand of Kindness" at firsite in Colchester, Essex, UK. Since October 2024 she has been restarting her independent art career, and looking into some of the long forgotten corners of her art research, which were impractical in her working life as a facilitator, but now can be revisited. I witnessed the 'death of painting' when a student. I resolved that it was not going to be erased that simply, and my forays into objecthood have alieviated the problem, by circumnavigating the linear march of Malevich's Black Square Modernism. I prefer to see Time as a spiral, or helter skelter, and that we can come back to a similar place now and then, thus never losing the "Good Times" for long. Juxtaposing the physical object, like a cathetar bag, or a large bird's nest with my paintings has good precedent. Many people have done it before me: Rauchenberg encorporated a life-size goat, Keiffer sticks bitumen and straw. Paint itself is plastic, so there is an infinite variety in the way it can be applied; spread flatly and thickly to form a smooth surface offering areas of potential, used sculpturally as a form in itself; worked into while wet and claggy, or left to dry before carefully painting acurate little strokes. Paint is also the perfect medium for creating the illusion of space, using perspective, and vibrant colour to push and pull space; and for creating optical illusions or realistic impressions of human beings, objects, animals and birds. I use colour as mood creator. What's funny is that I used to be very serious but now I seem to have become rather unserious. I tend to start with drawing, from life and from my own photography, and then move on to painting and distilling what it was I thought I wanted to convey. Recently my pictures became superficially whimsical. Accidentally I found humour to be useful in lightening often serious subjects. I use animal and human figures in my work and simple forms such as the square, circle and triangle. There are references to Mickey Mouse; Meissen Porcelain - Harlequin and Columbine; silk fabric; play dough; human figures of harmony and discord spanning family time, cinema, theatre and visual art. I realise this website may seem chaotic. It is a work in progress, and will hopefully become more organised as Time moves on. In it I intend to show work spanning decades, up to the present day. Check back often and see how it's going!
29.12.25 JRO
|
 |
|
TEACHING QUALIFICATIONS
City Lit, Holborn, London, WC1 1994 City & Guilds 7307 Stage One,
Further & Adult Education Teachers Certificate
EXPERIENCE
January 2025 Holiday Fun People Portraits workshop @firstsite, Colchester, Essex.
October 2024 Holiday Fun Mop Shelter workshop @firstsite, Colchester, Essex.
September
2007 - October 2024, Art & Gallery Project Lead, Art Development Officer/Artist in Residence at the ArtCafe,
3 Culver Street East, Colchester, CO1 1LD, at Art-Co, a Level Best
not-for-profit Social Enterprise, The Dacon Trust Ltd, Colchester,
Essex CO1 1LD Level Best Enterprises
May
- June 2007 Frinton on Sea Primary School, Art and Maths: Finding patterns
in chaos.
July 2005 CSV
Clubhouse, Ipswich, Suffolk
C & G 7500 Diploma in Media Techniques: Level 3 Unit 12: Web Page Design
Web Page Design in Macromedia Dreamweaver on a PC (Microsoft Windows XP) CSV Clubhouse, Ipswich, Suffolk
March - July 2005 CSV Clubhouse, Ipswich, Suffolk, Editing Digital Images: Introduction to Photoshop Techniques on a PC (Microsoft Windows XP)
November 2004 Harlow Arts CD Cover/Disc Design Workshop, Harlow Old Town, Essex
2003
June 2002, 2003, 2004 Frinton-on-Sea County Primary School, Essex.
Talk & workshops : School Alphabet/ “What an Artist Does” /Clay Cats
Art & Grounds Week, Sets for “Cinders”.
2001 Firstsite @ The Minories Art Gallery, Colchester
2000 – 01 Connecting Cultures Placementee at Bromley by Bow Healthy Living Centre, London E3.
Artist in a health setting generating insights into the experience of artists in such employment environments for under graduate syllabus for Art students. Worked with a trainee health net-worker using art as a focus to develop her confidence, educational potential and ability to provide cross-cultural assistance on health matters to ethnic minority groups. An initiative of the Colchester Institute.
1997 to 2000 Career break to focus on raising a family.
1996 to 1996 The Chequer Centre, City & Islington College, London, EC1
Tutor Grade 5
Oil painting for adults.
1990 to 1996 The Chequer Centre, City & Islington College, London, EC1
Tutor Grade 5
Painting and drawing, mixed level adults, LOCF accredited.
1992 to 1994 Chequer Centre, City & Islington College, London, EC1
Tutor Grade 5
Art for older people. Created stage backdrops for music show at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, during 1992 the European Year of Older People, as part of our regular class work.
1988 to 1993 Workshops on Demand, 49 Ellington Street, Islington, London
Art Tutor
Co-member of six artists committed to working with disadvantaged groups and implementing equal opportunities within the art-workshop arena. We shared administration, fund-raising and teaching. The workshops resulted in the exhibition of work by our clients in art galleries and libraries.
1990 Whitechapel Art Gallery. Oil painting and reminiscence with pensioners in conjunction with "Arshile Gorky", work toured.
1989 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Photocopy collage using reminiscences. Pensioners.
1989 Serpentine Gallery, London. Workshop with homeless adults to build a giant pinhole camera and darkroom with wheel chair access. Work toured.
1988 Haggerston Centre, Hackney, London. Sculpture. Adults with
learning difficulties.
1987 Shape & London Borough of Hackney, Space Studios, Belsham Street, Hackney Painting workshops for adults with learning difficulties.
1992 to 1992 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London E1
Artists' workshop
Painting workshops in conjunction with "Richard Diebenkorn". Primary, Secondary GCSE and adults. Life drawing for GCSE students.
1991 to 1991 Chequer Centre, Islington Adult Education, London, EC1
Tutor
Life drawing, watercolour and mixed level painting for adults
1988 to 1988 Newham Community College, East Ham, London
Sessional Tutor, Fine Art Dept. Foundation
One-to-one studio-based tutorials to art foundation students.
1987 to 1987 Peterborough General Hospital, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Printmaker in Residence
Motivate and instruct clients in psychiatric day centre with theme of Pot Garden, using stencilling and sponge painting techniques. Work bought by the Friends of Peterborough Hospital for the permanent print collection.
Colchester Institute 2003-4
Sheepen Road
Colchester, Essex
City & Guilds 5260 Printing Studies Graphic Communications
Colchester Institute July 2002
Sheepen Road
Colchester, Essex
Introductory Stage Therapeutic Counselling
Colchester Institute Summer 2000
Sheepen Road
Colchester, Essex
Attended Festival of Learning Web Design
City University, London, EC1 Winter 1990
Freelance Journalism Evening Class
Goldsmiths College of Art, Camberwell, London Sept 1983 to July 1986
M.A. Fine Art
MA thesis: "Carl Andre: Transcendental Value and Materials"
Pitmans Secretarial College 1981, Holborn,
London
Intensive secretarial skills
Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, Wiltshire Sept 1977 to
July 1980
B.A. (Hons) First Class, Fine Art (Painting)
Screen-Printing, Complimentary Studies
BA degree module breakdown:
Major: Painting
Minor: Screenprinting
Minor: Complimentary Studies, Geology:"New College Oxford: The buildings and their stones"
Minor: Complimentary Studies, Art & Design CV: "Two contemporary American architects: Michael Graves & Robert Stern"
Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, Wiltshire Sept 1976 to
July 1977
Foundation Course in Art and Design
Kent College, Pembury, Kent, September 1970-June 1976
A Level Geography, A Level Art
Hilden Oaks, Dry Hill Park Road, Tonbridge, Kent 1963-1970
Born Tonbridge, Kent, 08.09.58.
1991 British Council Travel Bursary . Organised and raised funds for two exhibitions of British and Bulgarian artists in Plovdiv and London. The British Council funded return journey to Bulgaria for 3 artists.
'Artists Handbooks Across Europe' David Butler Ed. Bulgarian Section Jane Ostler p.23-25, 1992 AN Publications (Artic Producers Publishing Co Ltd) Account of artists'exchange between a British and a Bulgarian. The Artist's personal guide to travel and work.
'Painting in Plovdiv' Jane Ostler Artists Newsletter
March 1991 AN Publications Account of artist's exchange between
a British and a Bulgarian. Illustrated by photographs including full
colour magazine cover.
'Sophie Horton' Jane Ostler Goldsmiths
Gallery Exhibition Catalogue Winter 1989 Goldsmiths Gallery, Essay
on sculpture.
'The Serpentine Illusion' Jane Ostler Building Design March 1989 Descriptive account of contemporary art installation by David Tremlett in public gallery illustrated with colour photographs by author.
March 23 2024 2nd Artist-Teacher in Adult Community Learning Conference: The Next Chapter. Looking Back.
March 7 2012 Bath Spa University Industry Insights Get into...Ethical Careers in the Charity and Not-for-Profit Sectors
April 29 2010 Essex University Spring Festival of Culture and the Arts : Empowerment through the Arts.
January 2007 Colchester Institute, School of Art, Essex, CO3. "Spheres of Influence"
June
2002, 2003, 2004 Frinton-on-Sea County Primary
School, Essex. Talk & workshops : School Alphabet/ “What
an Artist Does” /Clay
Cats.
1992 to 1992 Whitechapel Art Gallery, "Juan Gris", Gallery talk.
1989
to 1989 Serpentine Trust, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London
W2 Gallery talks on "David
Tremlett", " Colour
in Context" exhibitions.
1988 to 1988 The Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London Gallery Guide: "The Open Show" Gallery talk on selected work in the exhibition, including my own.
1987 to 1987 Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London, Gallery Guide: "Le Corbusier", led guided talks around contemporary art gallery; involving and engaging gallery visitors.
1986 to 1986 Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London Gallery Guide: "Falls the Shadow", led guided talks around contemporary art gallery to personally selected works; involving and engaging public.