Posted on September 7th, 2022 by Jane Fairhurst

Selected for BEEP 2022

Protective Amulet 1

Nothing has changed

Everything has changed

My Protective Amulet series are painted in oil paint over black gesso’d Limewood boards. Negotiating the placing of paint, marks and patterns within shapes I aim to create solid looking forms on the flat picture surface.

The subject matter in my Protective Amulet paintings conforms to a symbolic language found across the world and throughout history.  As objects of agency amulets offer protection from negative forces as intricately beautiful artefacts that conform to a set of rules; asymmetry, twisting lines, reflective surfaces, random patterns, bright and gaudy colours, juxtaposed decorations, spots and stripes.

The resulting paintings, whilst possessing an undeniable sculptural resonance, have developed into images in which I am interrogating the possibilities of colour, light, pattern and form. I am finding new ways to interpret cloth and to create pictorial harmony through rhythm and repetition.

Whilst the amulet remains extant other devices and iconography have replaced them thus nothing has changed and everything has changed.