Florals for winter? Yes, please, if they are by Jane Willoughby
The interiors world, in the last two years, has fallen in love with large scale botanical prints, but one exceptional Irish artist has been painting them for years. Jane Willoughby is a Dun Laoghaire-based artist, who studied art history and interior design and heritage and has a passion for historical wall paintings. She worked for many years as a specialist decorative painter, painting Italianate landscapes and chinoiserie directly onto the walls of beautiful stately homes such as The K Club, Straffan House, Mount Juliet, among others.
These days, Jane no longer takes on wall commissions, instead applying her painting skills to producing large hand-painted canvas panels with vignettes of stylised foliage, flowers and birds inspired by historical wall paintings and art history.
For this year’s upcoming Art Source exhibition at the RDS, November 10-12, Jane has painted two collections of panels. The ‘Vintage Botanicals’ collection is inspired by Dutch 17th-century flower paintings, and features urns and vases filled to profusion with soft coloured flowers and foliage. Her second collection ‘Chinoiserie’, follows on from her sellout show last year, with stylised compositions of flowers, foliage and birds inspired by historical hand-painted wallpapers and vintage Japanese prints in rich historical shades, from jade to blush pink to dark gold and bronze.
Each meticulously detailed hand-painted panel is presented in a gold painted border – all measure 120cm x 100cm and are available to purchase (€1,350) at the Art Source fair. You’ll need to get there early, but if you miss it, see more at www.janewilloughby.com or @janewilloughbyartist, where you might catch a glimpse of her beautiful home too.
READ Our Guide To Gifting Art HERE