Textural and vibrant, Jane Marin’s art stirs a feeling of connection. It is something she says her work is known for; something she puts down to her past as an intuitive healer. As an artist, it has meant tapping into her intuitive side and combining it with her self- confessed perfectionist tendencies to define her own individual artistic style.
“As an energy healer I know that everything you surround yourself with has energy and it either makes you feel good or it doesn’t. And it is the same with art,” Jane said.
“I have two different facets to my art – the art I create for me, which is the personal stuff, and is affected by mood, then the other art that is ‘channelled through’. So my feelings, moods and thoughts don’t affect those pieces. They are the ones I finish and think ‘wow, did I do that?’”
A mixed-media artist, Jane’s path to her creative calling wasn’t a straight one. Despite feeling a passion for art and displaying an excellence for it at a young age, growing up in an academic family meant a job as an artist was frowned upon.
“I thought I could do something creative and became a qualified interior designer, but never used that,” she said.
As a young adult, spending more than a decade battling ross river virus and chronic fatigue put Jane back on the path to art.
“As I recovered from that, I started doing a lot of soul searching and took a course in journaling and ended up using that to teach scrapbooking. I worked as a photographer as well and would use my photographs, I’d cut them up and make collages and create mandalas and things and it grew from there,” she said.
“I started creating mandalas for oracle cards and that got picked up by a publishing company, which I still do illustrations for. Then I took a course with Jassy Watson in intuitive painting and spent the first few lessons in tears, as I couldn’t let that perfectionist side of me go. But after a while I found my own style and combined my perfectionist side with my intuitive side and combining that healing with the art,” she said.
“Healing comes through the energy that people feel coming from the artworks that I sell and also through teaching people to use their own art to heal themselves.”
Jane began running workshops at her cottage three years ago, to help inspire people to connect to their creative side.
“Most people who come to the workshops have never done art before, and they come here and create something. I love that,” she said.
“I think when you complete something creative it just brings a kind of joy and love because it comes from you, it is a little piece of you, it is the joy it brings through.”
Jane runs regular half-day and full-day workshops in mixed media art – which includes things like acrylic paint, ink and collage.
“My half-day class, called Coffee, Cake and Canvas, is just a really nice social morning. We get coffee and cake from Alloway Farmers’ Market, and we do a small piece that people can take home that is all finished. While the full day one is a bit more involved,” Jane said.