Jane was born and brought up in and around Guildford and has lived in the town centre for over 20 years. During this time, despite working mainly as a portrait painter, she has painted many pictures inspired by the surrounding countryside - trees and hedgerows that she knows intimately due to a life time of dog walking! She is interested in the texture of the countryside and the way it can be used as a vehicle for the way in which she wants to use oil paint. Jane says:"I consider my landscapes to be portraits - portraits of cottages, trees, hedges - and not necessarily the grand classical view. I am also interested in attempting to capture that which, for me, is the essence of Surrey; the intense foliage, the strange bleached quality of the chalk downland, the slightly golden light and soft, blue distances twoards the South Downs." Jane Allison studied at Chelsea School of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art. Since leaving college in 1982 she has specialised in portraiture, exhibiting regularly with the Contemporary Portrait Society, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Susannah York, Nick Hornby, Viviana Durante, Royal Commission Sir George Edwards OM FRS, captains of industry, senior memvers of the legal profession, eminent surgeons, commanders of the Armed Forces, church dignitaries and distinguished academics - all have been committed to canvas by Jane Allison during her 20 year career as a portrait painter. Her paintings have been selected on many occasions by the judges of the BP Portrait Award and her work is also hung in the Queen's Collection, Windsor Castle.

Works