How Painting Changed My Life

A display of work by local artist Jane Southern, exploring the positive role art can play in mental health recovery.

Jane took up painting five years ago as a way of dealing with a series of traumatic and sad events in her life. A life-long keen photographer, Jane’s sense of composition was a helpful starting point and, encouraged by a friend who enjoyed painting, she started using her photographs of local scenes in Falmouth and the Cornish coast as a source of inspiration.

Through her work, which is brought to life by personal insights and candid filmed interviews, visitors will gain an understanding of how she found the challenge of learning to paint to be the distraction from grief and the solace she badly needed – and indeed a sense of achievement having had no previous experience of painting or drawing.

This quality of openness and vulnerability – as an artist, as a human being – will be reflected in the range of artwork displayed, which will include her earliest and most recent paintings and work showing the techniques and insights gained from attending art workshops in Cornwall.

The exhibition aims to tell a story of personal artistic struggle and growth that we can all feel a connection to.

This exhibition is part of the Museum’s experimental and organic series of artist-led exhibitions created in response to the maritime world.

About Jane Southern

Jane at a two day workshop at Cornwall School of Art in Spring 2024.

Jane was born and brought up in  Poole, Dorset and, after taking a degree in Pharmacy at Bath University ,she moved to  London where she worked firstly as a hospital pharmacist before setting up her own business catering for the photographic and film studios in the London area. Her clients included  many of the world’s most famous photographers, well known magazines and major advertising agencies. It was a very creative environment in which to work and Jane became a keen photographer in her spare time.

After the death of her much loved father in 2017 she decided to move to Falmouth where she now resides and paints from her home overlooking the beautiful scene that is Falmouth Bay.