Jane and David Brayne met at art college in the eighties. Jane was (and still is) passionate about Bonnard, David was immersed in Picasso’s work. Somehow they got along. Today, they have separate studios in their Somerset home but meet up to look at each other’s work. They are not averse to saying what they think and this actually helps.
Both worked in archaeology. For David this was fleeting but Jane became deeply involved, drawing and surveying on site. She went on to specialise in making illustrations of people and places of the past for English Heritage publications, The British Museum, and on television, where she was series illustrator on Meet the Ancestors for BBC2. Her comic strip book for children is a bestseller at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre.
Her intimate involvement with landscape and a particular interest in surviving fragments of ancient places inform and enrich much of her understated paintings.
David has always painted. Sometimes accused of being intentionally elusive, he views himself as a narrative artist, although the stories he weaves are implicit rather than explicit and left to the viewers to decipher for themselves. He makes his paints from raw pigments, luminous ochres, vibrant blues and greens, resonant blacks. His textured surfaces are built slowly with clear glazes and impasto.
His paintings are held in The Royal Collection and in a number of museums around the world. He was awarded the Turner Medal and is an honorary member of the Royal Watercolour Society. The Watercolour Society of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) has invited David to take part in their 50th Anniversary Exhibition this summer. This is David and Jane’s first joint exhibition for a long time and both are delighted to be showing together at White Space Art.