Artist Statement:

Janine Partington is principally a vitreous enameller specialising in panels, jewellery and sculptures. However, since 2010 Janine has become increasingly interested in one aspect of the process of her main practice – the stencils that she uses to transfer her designs from the drawing board to her enamel panels.

Following a photo shoot of her enamel studio in 2010 for BBC Homes & Antiques magazine, Janine spent some time examining the preliminary photographs taken of her stencils piled together, as they generally are in her workspace. She realised that one of the most pleasurable parts of her artistic practice was the hand-cutting of these stencils and was fascinated by the layering of the pieces. Consequently she has begun to explore this hand-cutting in more detail using both abstracted and natural images to highlight the play that can be had from the revealing and obscuring of parts of different layers and the building up of textures that this creates. Janine will be continuing to explore these relationships through hand-cut paper cuts over the coming months and years alongside her usual studio practice.

Education/Qualifications:

2015 –             MA in Design, University of West of England, Bristol -part-time
2002 – 2007 Enamelling, Bristol School of Art and Design, Filton College
1995 MA in Museum Studies, Leicester University
1991 BA (Hons) History of Art, Design and Film, Sheffield City Polytechnic

Other art education includes O-level Art, Pottery courses, Bookbinding course, Jewellery course.

Memberships include:

The Devon Guild of Craftsmen (elected Full Member 2007)
Guild of Enamellers (elected Associate Member 2011)
British Society of Enamellers (elected Full Member 2009)

Exhibitions (most recent first):

Janine exhibits widely across the UK and Europe as an enamel artist, please find below recent shows in which her scalpel cut line drawings have featured since 2011.

2015
3 – 7 December 2015
Evergreen – an installation of scalpel cut line drawings on paper
The Control Room, Redcliffe Bridge, Bristol
https://bristolcitycouncilcreativespace.wordpress.com/

2013
Drawn, RWA, Bristol
CHAIN, A Casa Museu do Objeto Brasileiro Institution, San Paulo, Brazil

2012
MAKE, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey
Made by Hand, Newport
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Manchester
The Contemporary Craft Festival, Bovey Tracey
Drawn to Craft, Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton
Black Swan Open Art, Black Swan Arts, Frome

2011 (most recent first)
159th Autumn Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Art in A Box, One Church Street Gallery, Great Missenden, Bucks
Origin: The London Craft Fair, Spitalfields, London
Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Spinningfields, Manchester
Fired by Nature – an exhibition of enamels and papercuts by Janine Partington, Rostra Gallery, Bath
A Silver Thread, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey
Paper, Craft House Concept, Edinburgh
Black Swan Open Craft, Black Swan Arts, Frome