It was a few years ago when we first encountered the artist Jane Hickman, and needless to say we fell in love with her artwork right away. We met her at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and have been buying her postcards and adding them to every gift wrapped order ever since.
For those of you not familiar with Jane’s work, we’re here to shine the spotlight on her incredible talent, style and flair.
Who is Jane Hickman?
Local artist Jane Hickman has been creating art in her rural Hertfordshire studio for more than three decades.
She is known and much loved for her interest in horticulture and her use of the batik technique, an ancient art form that uses wax resistant dye to create patterns on fabric. It’s a fascinating technique where water-based dyes are used in conjunction with hot liquid wax to determine where colours appear in the painting. The artist then controls the coloured dyes to create their own unique designs, and the results couldn’t be more beautiful!
Using both art and craft, batik actually originates from Indonesia. We’ll let The Batik Guild explain more about its roots in tradition:
“The art of decorating cloth using wax and dye, has been practised for centuries in many parts of the world including China, Japan, India, South America and Europe. In Java, an island in Indonesia, batik is part of an ancient tradition, and some of the finest batik cloth in the world is still made there. The word batik originates from the Javanese word ‘tik’ which means to dot. Batik is both a verb (to batik) and a noun (a batik – an object made by batiking!).”
Why we love Jane’s batik designs
With nature the very essence of Jane’s inspiration, we couldn’t help but adore her designs. Over her 35-year career, Jane has perfected the use of the batik technique to create some truly iconic designs. Her predominantly flower-based pieces are now available in the form of greeting cards, original paintings and prints, with her latest venture into the world of scarves and shawls seeing her print her designs onto silk, velvet and wool.
Jane is also a regular at craft and flower shows, and frequently exhibits her art work at galleries, so if you’d like to see and appreciate her batik designs for yourself, it’s easy to do this.
Want your own piece of art?
Did you know you can grab your own piece of Jane Hickman art when purchasing from us and using our gift wrapping service? We proudly add a Jane Hickman postcard to every gift wrapped order to share our love for her creative yet traditional and nature-inspired style, and we hope our customers love it as much as we do!
Shop our collection to get started, not forgetting to select our gift wrapping option at checkout. You can also find out more about Jane Hickman and her wonderful work here.
