Oxmarket are delighted to welcome Jan Bennett to the Wilson Gallery for 2 weeks. Jan left school at the earliest opportunity to escape the academic bias and join the real world. Art College was suggested but rejected as she had no work to show and instead began an apprenticeship which led to running her own business. Somewhere along the way the window displays took a new turn, at times bearing little connection to that of the business inside and prompting one vinegar-tongued customer to remark upon their resemblance to that of a funeral parlour.

Finally seeking a new direction in 1995, Jan closed the business and enrolled at Chichester College for a 2yr City & Guilds course of interior paint effects.  Along with new-found freedom among other creatives who bounced ideas back and forth, this was the beginning of her love affair with paint.

Further exploration followed, flitting from collage, embellishment, recycled & found objects to papier-mache models which echoed her autumn-inspired paintings. This time the former shop windows played host to themed displays which provided a little fun for passers-by, not least during Covid restrictions.

Jan now concentrates upon painting, seeing herself as an untaught artist. Preferring to work with oils, she produces colourful abstract works which unfold as she paints, likening them to vivid, fragmented dreams recalled from the previous night and wondering, what on earth was all that about?

The most important characteristics for Jan’s art are imagination, originality and impactful colour, she paints for the love of it, somtimes experimentally, thus all are unique.