"I am self taught and have been painting for about 15 years now. My parents were part of the early modern art scene described in Dr. Richard Haese’s book ‘Rebels and Precursors’. I grew up surrounded by painters and paintings. It took me a long time to understand that between the greats there was still room for good painters, and that with some hard work, I could become one.

The style I have developed is my own. My family taught me that individuality is vital and being fashionable is irrelevant. Richard Haese, the guest speaker at my last exhibition, described me as a symbolist. I was happy with that. My paintings often reflect my conflict between my romantic ideals and my cynicism; the flowers of romance cast darkly, spiky shadows, the cat, which featured heavily in my early work, often sitting staring at the viewer from a corner of the painting, representing the cool, detached observer, the fish as a symbol, is more personal but can be read generally as the part of a lover that remains elusive no matter how close two people become. In the darkest of nights we stand alone.

Usually my paintings are entirely from my head, but recently I have been copying, in my own style, great paintings by other artists. it has given me new respect for the brilliance of their technique, which i could not hope to reproduce."

Jane Sinclair November 2010