Jane Campbell on roots and influences

First, tell me about your work?

My work is full of color, fun, it’s folky but with a modern/contemporary edge. 90% of the time I sit down to a blank can­vas, noth­ing drawn out or pre­con­cieved, and I paint until I’m happy. My angels come to life on their own. Their eyes usu­ally fol­low you, have a dif­fer­ent expres­sion on each side of their face, & uneven whim­si­cal fea­tures which I feel gives them a spe­cial char­ac­ter & it makes me love paint­ing them. They are my favorite. My folk art crabs, mer­maids, & flo­rals are inspired by my Car­olina roots.
I love paint­ing on an imper­fect can­vas. Espe­cially wood that is des­tined for the dumps or can­vas that has been cov­ered in fine sand. It’s the organic qual­ity & rough tex­ture that draws me to it and the feel­ing it gives me to turn waste into some­thing wonderful.

What medi­ums have you worked in and which is your favorite?

I work with oils & acrylics. Work­ing with oils is truly my favorite, how­ever, most of my work is done with acrylics for the ease of dry­ing time.
I also enjoy pho­tog­ra­phy, alter­ing pho­tographs, clay work, sewing, knit­ting, cro­chet, & hand embroidery.

How did you get started?

I started paint­ing when I was 13. Let’s just say that was a long time ago and leave it at that. I have always painted for myself, fam­ily, friends or just because my spirit needed me to. I dreamed of being able to paint for a liv­ing nearly all my life. It was when I found myself unem­ployed Novem­ber 2007 that I decided to go for it. When my paint­ings started sell­ing online I was amazed, flat­tered & com­pelled to keep paint­ing. I am now liv­ing my dream. I have never worked as long and hard but never have been this happy either.

Who has influenced/inspired your art work?

Walt Soren­son, a retired Art Direc­tor at Dis­ney was a huge influ­ence. His por­trait classes instilled my love and appre­ci­a­tion of the human face. I no longer fol­low all of his rules as I once did. I like the free­dom of being quirky instead of real­is­tic.
It would be impos­si­ble for me to chose a favorite artist but these are some of my favorites, not nec­es­sar­ily in order: Edward Hop­per, Jack Vet­tri­ano, Winslow Homer, Max­field Par­rish, Michael Parks, Alphonse Mucha, Claude Monet, Henry Matisse, Diego Rivera, Raphael and of course Piccasso.