Biography

Jan Kilpatrick was born in Glasgow in 1963 and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in English and History. She has explored a variety of roles in her working life, including teaching English in schools and running her own upholstery business, whilst living in such remote locations as Wester Ross, rural Perthshire and the East Sutherland fishing village of Helmsdale. The diverse experiences and skills she has acquired along this journey have found expression in the quirky and vibrant artwork she produces today, mixing a wide range of media, such as ceramics and textiles. Much of her work is three-dimensional and is developed from the themes and motifs to be found in her own poetry.

"My work is the expression of a desire to value and celebrate the intrinsic beauty and potential of everyday events and work-a-day materials, often cast aside by others without the slightest consideration. I find that combining an eclectic mix of recycled, found and natural materials, each with their own history and patina, gives fresh life to each work whilst retaining a resonance with the past. The resulting work is usually intense in colour and organic in form. Recently I have become interested in illuminating lyrical text, giving expression to the links, both ordinary and sacred, between human experience and the natural world within which we dwell."

Jan now lives in Elphin, a crofting township in Assynt, Sutherland, 15 miles north of Ullapool. She combines working to commission with teaching mosaic, embroidered textiles, creative book-making and writing, travelling the length and breadth of Scotland in the process.

It has been a few years since Jan's work has been seen around the Scottish galleries but now that her studio is in working order, she is spending more time developing new work. She is finding her own expression of the story of the lonely Sutherland landscape and its rare inhabitants through an increasing use of natural materials in art that is infused with imagery drawn from the sensory experience of living in such a wild environment.

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