Jane Corsellis NEAC (b. 1940)

                Jane Corsellis has pursued a natural calling to be an artist from early in life and has dedicated herself to her craft with constant energy and inquisitiveness. She stood out as a student at the Byram Shaw School of Art (1960-62) where she received a Leverhulme Scholarship and the final year Painting Prize. Following a year painting in Spain, she returned to the UK and took up teaching for a couple of years before emigrating to Hong Kong, Canada and Malaysia. During this time she continued to paint and exhibit extensively, having solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, Ottowa and Kuala Lumpur. She returned to the UK in 1991 and has had several solo exhibitions in London. She exhibits regularly at the New English Art Club (NEAC), the Royal Watercolour Society and the Small Paintings Group, as well as at other galleries in the UK.

Corsellis works predominantly in watercolour and oils, employing traditional methods and techniques and combining them with an instinctive approach to painting. Capturing changing conditions has been a uniting theme throughout her work. She works on several studio paintings at a time, but draws and paints in plein-air constantly, particularly enjoying the challenges posed by coastal scenes. Corsellis’ technical skills have enabled her art to inhabit a liminal space between the figurative and abstracted.

Her talents have been recognised throughout her career. She was elected a member of the NEAC in 1976, the Royal Watercolour Society in 1995 and the Royal Cambrian Academy in 2002. She has been awarded the De Lazlo Medal by the Royal Society British Artists, London and the NEAC Annual Exhibitions Critics Prize in 2001 and 2002, and the Doreen McIntosh Prize 2012, for work that “fulfils the New English Art Club's ideals of rigour, immediate engagement with the visual and a searching attitude.”

Living in London and Pembrokeshire, Corsellis teaches at the NEAC Drawing School and has also produced two books: ‘Painting Figures in Light’ (1982) and ‘A Personal View: Painting in Oils and Watercolour’ (2000). Her work continues to be highly sought after and is held in private and corporate collections in the UK, North America, Europe and the Far East.