This month, we're thrilled to spotlight the captivating work of Jan de Ville, a talented pet and wildlife portrait artist based in North Devon. Specialising in coloured pencil, Jan’s intricate drawings beautifully capture the essence of the local landscapes and the animals that inhabit them. In this blog, she shares her creative journey, her deep passion for wildlife, and the inspiring story behind how she began her career as an artist.
"I started my art journey completely from scratch a decade ago, just as a hobby, and this year l was very honoured to be invited to start selling my art in two local art & craft centres. I display one or two original works and the rest are framed Giclée prints which have been selling well. I’m fortunate to live in Southwest England where we are surrounded by spectacular scenery and my two passions are firstly animals & wildlife followed closely by the landscape. I love to go out walking, taking photos and then go home and recreate what I’ve seen with my pencils - my artworks are actually Coloured Pencil drawings not paintings which always seems to surprise people!"
"In addition to creating and selling wildlife and landscape art l offer a bespoke pet portrait service. My aim is to create photo-realistic art as l’m constantly amazed by other artists’ ability to do this and am even more amazed that l can now do this myself! From time to time l get challenged about why l produce art that looks like photographs; l see this as having achieved my aim but l also explain that FJ Widgery was an early twentieth century artist who created beautiful realistic paintings of Dartmoor and l realised how important this would have been at the time, before colour photography was available. I see the convenience of modern equipment as no reason to stop producing lifelike art!"
"My latest creation is Castle Rock in the Valley of Rocks on Exmoor; l was particularly keen to draw this scene as l came across my reference photo in a box of my late father’s belongings. He was an award winning amateur photographer and l think he would be proud to see my version of his photo hanging up for sale in the local art & craft centre!"
"When l was at school we had nothing like fine art Coloured Pencils or the vast array of mediums we have now, l like to think l could have started a lot earlier and I’m encouraging my young nieces to have a go, art is never a waste of time. Coloured Pencils are a very slow medium and much patience is needed but what you can produce with them is fantastic. Perseverance is key!"
Thank you, Jan, for sharing such valuable insights into your creative journey. Be sure to follow her on Instagram and explore her stunning artwork. We’ll be back next month with another talented artist to feature!