Jane Evans

Jane Evans – Biography

With seven years experience in Gyotaku Art, Jane Evans is the United Kingdoms most established Gyotaku Artist.  She is a member of the Gyotaku Art Europe Association and the Nature Printing Society which is an international group promoting printing from the natural world.

She has had Gyotaku work selected three years running now for the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibiton and the Royal Cambrina Academy.

Jane continues to improve her practice of printing directly from the surface of specimens making more complicated, layered prints as well as working with a greater range of specimens.

From her home studio on the Island of Anglesey, Jane continues to promote the art form of Gyotaku hoping to see it receive a wider recognition across the United Kingdom as to date, it is still a largely unknown art form.

Gyotaku is a Japanese practice where a specimen is inked and an impression is taken from it’s surface using cloth or paper.  The origins of the practice pre date the camera and were used to record fishermens catch.

As Jane has developed her skills with this technique she has also learned the Urauchi technique for making the prints flat so they can be framed.  The printing process, by it’s nature means the paper she uses gets stretched and wrinkled pressing it against the surface of three dimensional objects, so in order to frame the work, Urauchi is necessary.

Her primary focus is on marine specimens but she has also found a passion for printing bees, feathers and some plant life too.   By working with different specimens, it makes it possible to offer work at different prices points which, Jane hopes makes the work more accessible to a wider audience.