Known for wonderfully quirky and engaging illustrations, Jane has just completed a painting featuring the Moulsford boys at the Summer Concert in celebration of the school’s 60th anniversary.  This is the third in the collection of Moulsford prints, which can be purchased from her directly using this link.

Jane Vallings, a current Moulsford parent, has been passionate about drawing since early childhood.  When we caught up with her to find out a little more about how it started, Jane recounts spending hours drawing as a child, always with a focus on houses, animals and cartoon-like people.  Her inspiration and love of this style of comic drawing came from Quentin Blake, perhaps best known for his illustration of the Roald Dahl collection of children’s books.  At school, Jane would make personalised cards for friends, and illustrate the covers of exercise books for her classmates, depicting anything from pigs to elephants, all in a charming cartoon style. 

In her humble manner, Jane is emphatic that she is not a formally trained artist, and that art is not her career, and yet she has nonetheless  set up a successful small illustration business.  She receives commissions to create paintings, largely in pen and watercolour wash, of houses, schools, or maps of chosen areas for special occasions and anniversaries.  Many of the works she undertakes are for personalised gifts.  The paintings invariably feature her hallmarks of cartoon characters and pets alongside the chosen building.  Surprisingly the paintings can be quick, taking only a few days, or considerably longer, depending on how her creativity is flowing on the day.

Talking to her about a recent project, which she particularly enjoyed working on, Jane tells me of a commission for a charity foundation seeking a gift for its retiring chairman.  This painting features a tennis match with an array of children in the foreground participating in different activities, representing the variety of pursuits that the charity supports, which makes for an illustration with incredible detail and richness.

Looking at her work it is striking that humour is a big part of the appeal of these illustrations. The informal cartoon style conveys movement and action and often makes people smile.  Jane describes her paintings as capturing a slice of life, which in the past has led to highly emotional responses to her work, where  recipients have been known to cry as well as laugh on seeing the illustrations, as was the case with a painting where the son was chipping golf balls off the roof of the house.  These action-filled works have a nostalgic appeal, which explains why the Moulsford prints for example are popular with Year 8 leavers as a keep-sake. 

To round off our conversation, we asked Jane what she wanted to explore next with her art journey in the future.  Given her love of Cornwall and the sea, she is very keen to attend a course in seascape oil painting, which would be a new medium and subject.  We wish Jane every success with this new direction but hope she also continues painting in her current loveable style.

Jane will donate around 10% of the proceeds of her Moulsford paintings towards the school's chosen charities of Soundabout and Mary's Meals.

To view or order the Moulsford prints please click the following link https://www.janevallings.com/moulsford