Kloof artist creates beautiful ceramic treasures

CREATING beautiful objects from a colourless lump of clay to transforming something old into a a new and intricate piece of artwork is the passion that drives 57-year-old artist, Jane Jarvis.

Walking into her Kloof home you find yourself surrounded by the warmth of a loving home that is dotted with her original art pieces on the walls, cabinets and even adorning the frame of the fireplace.

She has always been gifted with an artistic flair and chose to study fine arts at technicon Natal (now Durban University of Technology) where she received the Emma Smith scholarship in her second year and was awarded the Sam Newton trophy as the top final-year student. “At school no one used to attend the ceramics classes as it was once a week, from 3pm to 7pm. Everyone just used to bunk,” laughed Jane. “My lecturer, James Hall, took me under his wing and showed me everything there was to know about ceramics.” She received a national diploma in fine art and design in 1978.

Soon afterwards she took up a position as a draftswoman and in 1979 married and had children and started a ceramics studio at home.

When her daughter, Emily Stockden, started school at St Mary’s DSG in 1998,Jane was invited by the principal, Jeremy Sabine, to open a photography dark room. “I worked with the pupils at the school for quite a few years. I then opened a dark room at Hillcrest High School as an extra curricular activity and soon found myself rushing between the two schools,” she said. Under her watchful eye, the pupils were taught how to take photographs,. She would develop the negatives, and then teach them how to print their photos using the old-fashioned enlargers.

Before taking up a full time art teacher post at Hillcrest High School and later at St Mary’s DSG, she studied for an HED in 1998 to 1999. During her first year of studies she represented South Africa in the Seychelles with Sandile Zulu. The exhibition included representatives from all of the Pacific Rim countries. “I was quite shocked when I learnt that I was selected. Bren Brophy had submitted my name for the competition. He did tell me but I really didn’t think that I would make it. It was fantastic and amazing. It was like a seven-day holiday in the Seychelles,” she said.

The mother of two taught at Hillcrest High School for three years as one of two art teachers from 2002 to 2004. She then took up a post at St Mary’s in 2005 as a full-time art teacher until 2010. “It just kind of happened as I had opened the dark room and loved the art department at St Mary’s. It really was an interesting place and the children were very motivated. The whole environment was wonderful. Everything that I said to them they took and ran with it. I learnt a lot while teaching them,” said Jane.

Her love of art has seen her travel the globe and she said she has been lucky enough to have visited The Louvre in Paris about six times in her life. “I visited the Metropiltan Museum of Art and the MoMA in New York and the Hermitage in St Petersburg in Russia. One thing that I got so excited about was seeing Clinton Demenzes’ artwork exhibited in New York. I also saw work by one of my favourite artists, Anselm Kiefer, in Salzburg in Austria,” said Jane.

When she is not creating works of art, she spends time tending veggie garden and sews items which are later used in some of her art pieces. “I absolutely love making things. I can’t ever sit and not be doing something. I am currently making an embroided bird for my next exhibition,” said Jane. “It’s like I have two completely different sides as there are the creative pieces and then the decorative and design pieces and it’s almost like I irritate myself with the two sides of me,” she laughed.

Her next exhibition will be in late 2017.