Janet Hammerton is an artist and environmental educator based in Hambledon, Hampshire UK.
My Art
My paintings are expressions of the way I see the natural world, sometimes illustrative and sometimes representational, but always with a little bit of magic rather than realism. I have four galleries of prints featuring four very different styles and themes. I also have card designs in which the style is sometimes more earth seasonal cycles based.
My Process
I work from a variety of sources, painting from sketch books and from my own photos as well as from my imagination. I sometimes use well known images and repurpose them to tell a slightly different story. I use a variety of paint methods and materials including water colour, inks, oils, pastels and water colour pencils, finding my own ways to use them. I trained as a textile designer specialising in printed fabric designs and my work reflects this early training.
Art Sound Meditation
I am interested in Art as Therapy and Mindful Art and have completed an online course which helps me to identify where in my own practise I have become over focused on results. I feel that painting, creating and crafting can provide us with a means of expressing joy. Working with friends Sam Britton and Jonathon Huet, we ran the Art, Sound and Meditation Course at The Sustainability Centre in Hampshire in 2021 and 2023.
My Journey
I have worked as an Environmental Educator for 22 years and this is reflected in the nature based paintings I have worked on more recently. In particular, I am working on a series of paintings of Wild White Flowers of the Chalk Downs of which Wood Anemone, Wild Garlic and Snowdrops you can view in my Shop. In the past, I have worked as a freelance textile designer, as a museum conservator and as an outdoor education practitioner and manager. All these different experiences have influenced the crafts and paintings I have produced over the years.
Permaculture
I completed a Permaculture Design Course in 2015 at Keveral Farm in Cornwall with Klaudia Van Gool and Bryn Thomas. This course changed my life. I first encountered Permaculture via Permaculture Magazine in 2001and then spent 22 years working in environmental education with several of those years as an Education Manager at The Sustainability Centre in Hampshire. My interest in permaculture, sustainable living and rewilding continues and I plan to steer my art towards more landscape and native plants in the future.
On The Wild Side
I lived for 35 years beneath a steep Hampshire hanger of Beech and Ash trees. We tried to live as lightly as possible on our 2.5 acre plot and were rewarded by many wildlife watching experiences with badgers, foxes, deer, garden birds and, for many years, glow worms. There were always buzzards overhead and in season swathes of wildflowers in the meadow lawns. We were part chalk downland and part woodland. I wrote a piece called On the Wild Side for The Sustainability Centre website in 2020 during lockdown. Its just an amateur's view of this semi-wild space, but it expresses how I feel about the natural world and how we are custodians only of the gardens and land we own.
Earth Pathways
I have been a contributor to Earth Pathways Diary and Calendar for three consecutive years (2023-2025) and my work can be seen in my gallery on their website. I am delighted to be able to contribute to Earth Pathways and to share their "deep love of the earth and positive environmental change".
Decorative Arts
I trained as textile designer at Winchester School of Art specialising in printed fabric design for furnishings. My final degree show in 1990 focused on prints inspired by old and worn tapestries and medieval art. For some time after college, I worked as a freelance designer sporadically selling print designs, paper mache and occasional silk pieces before retraining at West Dean College in Sussex as a museum conservator specialising in Ceramics and Glass. My work reflects these early decorative arts interests and has a clear design and illustrative bias. My aim for the future is to practise more landscape painting and work more on compositions that have a more realistic sense of depth.
