Jan Phethean
I live and work on the south west coast of Cornwall. My studio is in a former net loft on the fishing harbour of Porthleven and overlooks the entrance to the inner harbour which was breached by the stormy seas of February 2014. The Salt Cellar Workshops, a collective of artists and craft makers are open to the public from midday, seven days a week and my studio is on the upper floors. I also have a studio at my home in a small cliff top hamlet called Rinsey.
I have painted all my life, having spent my twenties in the Lebanon where I was trained by artisans to paint beautiful murals in Sheikhs palaces in the Gulf. I formed my own company when I returned to the UK and went on to create The Clubhouse Concept for Virgin Atlantic, and their Upper Class international Airport Lounges in the UK and the USA, among many other international projects. I moved back to my family roots in Cornwall to paint full time at the start of the new millennium.
My work reflects my passion for nature, landscape and wildlife. I am fascinated by ancient field systems, obsessed by trees and the repeating patterns which occur in the landscape, and the intricacies of the relationship between the geology of the earth and the marks of man. Both my home and studio overlook the sea and inevitably all things of the ocean turn up in my work too.
I have at least four paintings on the go at any time, which allows me to explore colour variations and compositional differences. The paintings are based on sketches I have made en plein air and photography, my other passion. Using colour and creating saturation by applying many layers of thin glazes I can spend many weeks painting a particular subject.
In my leisure time I love to travel, to visit beautiful landscapes, high moors are my favourite places, Bodmin and Dartmoor feature regularly in my work and I spend a month a year in Brazil.
I have recently been selected to become an associate member of the St Ives Society of Artists, a society with an illustrious artistic history. Former members include Barbara Hepworth, Borlaise Smart, Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Wilhemina Barnes Graham and many more. I feel very privileged to be a part of both this highly respected long standing society and the thriving artistic community of Porthleven.
