Jane Higginbottom @ Broomhill
We have asked the artist to provide a statement about their work, an edited personal history, and a selection of exhibitions and commissions. The content here is entirely their words and selection. Works illustrated here have been chosen by the artist.
The works shown on this page are not necessarily on display at Broomhill.
The Artist Speaks
Jane likes to work mainly in stone, carving straight into it without a preconception of the finished piece; taking suggestions from plant or human forms. She allows the innate quality that the stone contains, help form the piece ie. she allows the stone to show what it wants to be depending on the colour, form and energy that it has.
A recent commission, a wedding present from groom to bride, worked with two forms, interconnected yet separate. It took the leaf/pod shapes Jane had been working with into further abstraction. The idea was to represent the joining of two people , becoming a married couple and at the same time maintaining their own identity. The piece was made from Greek marble and had a very sensual surface and feeling.
Leaf, Greek marble, as shown, was working with three forms moving as one and also away from each other. It also represent growth.
Processes and Techniques
When stone carving Jane works mainly with hand tools to cut the stone. The work is usually on a small scale and made in the studio. She works with a variety of stones from marble to granite.
Community Projects
Jane has also worked on a lot of community carving and mosaics projects, particularly with primary schools. The idea is to work through ideas and design with the children and then to involve them in the making process. The mosaic image shown is of a piece made with a community garden in South London. It is in the middle of a council estate and overlooked by many flats so it benefits people in different ways, either by direct involvement or improved environment.
She has also made a carved oak bench for this garden, including workshops with children and adults.
Her last project was a line of mosaic panels to be set in a school playground based on the theme of the meridian line. We looked at the countries that the line passes through and visited the observatory at Greenwich.
