Artospective: Figurative Paintings by Mary Jane Ansell.

The Treaty - 40 x 32 inches - Oil on Aluminium.

An Interview with Mary Jane Ansell.

Who and where are you from?

Mary Jane Ansell, born in England, 1972. I’ve recently moved home and studio to the glorious hills and valleys of North Wales after 25 years of living and working in Brighton UK.

How you got into this?

I have always drawn and knew at an early age I wanted to make it my career. Initially I studied illustration, not only for it’s narrative element but at that time in the UK there were few fine art courses that offered much in the way of a formal art training, whereas Brighton, my preferred choice, had an exceptional Illustration degree which offered the most interesting combination of access to life models, professional practicing artist lecturers and and a wide variety of training in various media from print making to animation. The city itself is also a fantastic place to develop as an artist - hosting as it does a huge creative community, hundreds of venues and easy access into London and it’s world class museums and galleries. Plus it has the second largest annual arts festival in the UK held every May. It’s also home to a plethora of burgeoning creative industries from cutting edge IT to film and music so there are plenty of opportunities to sustain and develop your skills in a very supportive atmosphere. After I graduated I continued to develop my work supplementing my income with design and animation work as well as curating group exhibitions and hosting an Open House show of artists work in my home, from there I gained enough private commissions and began to find success with juried exhibitions like the BP National Portrait Award and Royal Society of Portrait Painters shows and that brought me to the attention of some great galleries at the point at which I felt ready to take advantage of the opportunity.

What is your driving force?

An unshakable passion to keep on developing and improving my work. I’ve been doing this professionally for 15 plus years but I still feel like I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of what I want to do.

What kind of work you do and why?

I paint portraits and figurative paintings, I work regularly with a small group of models and friends who over time have become the archetypes of my work, they represent a group of characters through which I can tell a personal narrative and comment on my experience of the world around me.