Autumn light on Irish fields, 2016

Jane Meyler  

Jane grew up in Dublin where her home was full of music, her Dad was an accomplished mandolin and banjo player and her Mam made sure the love and appreciation of music was encouraged. There was always a good music session in their home. Jane learned the piano but it was drawing and colouring was her favourite pastime as a child. Jane’s childhood summers were spent with her family at their cottage in Rosslare Strand, Co. Wexford and she counts her blessings to live there now, where she works from her studio over looking Rosslare Bay.

It is only since 2008 that Jane embraced her love of drawing and began to paint. After being invited by some local Wexford artists to join them painting en plein air, Jane’s passion for painting outdoors grew. In a bid to learn more, she travelled to Las Vegas and California to attend the 1st and 2nd Plein Air Conventions where she embraced the chance to meet and learn from some of the best plein air painters today.

Her first experience in working with pastel came about at a workshop in 2009 at Wexford’s plein air festival, Art in the Open, which has since grown into Europe’s largest plein air festival and this summer is celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary. Last year, Jane was invited on to the committee of Art in the Open and after 8 years participating in the festival where she won joint bronze award in 2012 and the peoples choice award in 2014, she now enjoys the other side of the coin helping to organise it.

In 2012, Jane was accepted as a full member of the Pastel Society of Ireland, exhibiting in their annual shows throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland including the Titanic Centre in Belfast, The Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Jane regularly enjoys travelling from the sunny south east of Wexford to the beautiful Antrim coast and the majestic Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland to paint. Having grown up by the sea, the ever changing skies and wild waters are the inspiration to her work, it’s energy and the ever changing light of the Irish landscape, encompassing all weathers and seasons inspiring Jane to paint quickly, embracing that same energy, vigour and enthusiasm and portraying it in her work.
Artist’s Statement.

My two loves are music and art, one enhancing the other, for me they go hand in hand, expressing mood through rhythm, soul and energy, be it through sound or vision. Often while in the studio, before I even start a painting or at a time when I step away from a piece to rest, I pick up an instrument and play some music, feeding the painting with music from the soul. My audience is my painting. While outdoors painting, it’s the wind, waves, birds or just the sound of silence that I tune in to. Nature’s inspiration at it’s best. My dream is to travel around the coast of this beautiful Island and visit all the little seaside towns and record their charm and character in paint. I may even find a few good music sessions along the way!!