12 October 2026
Jane Fantom is a mixed-media landscape artist based in Charlesworth in the High Peak. She works with collage and painting to construct landscape-based images from found photographic material.
Using pages from second-hand photography books, she cuts and assembles fragments of imagery to create compositions that suggest coastal and geological views through colour and texture.
“I take out the pages that I know are going to work together, and then I narrow them down to choose the colour palette. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.
She is particularly drawn to aerial photography because it offers unusual perspectives, including shifts in scale and interesting colour relationships. The books she uses often contain handwritten dedications, adding another layer of meaning to the work.
As she puts it, “At one point, somebody owned that book, or maybe it was a gift. By making this work I feel as though I’m continuing that history.” She has also recently begun painting into some collage pieces with acrylics which has created a further dimension and widened the scope of her work.
Jane doesn’t begin with preliminary sketches, but allows the composition to emerge from the materials. Describing her process, she explains “I take out the pages that I know are going to work together, and then I narrow them down to choose the colour palette. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Developing a work can be a lengthy process which Jane can sometimes find frustrating, admitting “I’m a bit of a 100 mile an hour person, so I have to slow myself down.” Her compositions are rearranged repeatedly before anything is permanently fixed in place.
Sometimes the process is interrupted by searching for a particular colour or texture that is missing from the available materials, but she continues experimenting with different elements until the work feels resolved.
Jane describes her practice as highly methodical, noting “if I’m working with too many pieces at once, I can get confused about my choices.” Her works may appear intuitive, but they are underpinned by a lot of thought. Once the layout has been created, she photographs it to ensure that she remembers her decisions.
The finished works are created on birch ply, which she prepares in much the same way as a traditional painting surface. The wood is primed with gesso before painting the sky in acrylic based on the colour palette of the collage. This creates atmosphere, but Jane is careful not to allow painted areas to dominate the collage.
Her aim is to retain the material qualities of both processes, creating works that function simultaneously as paintings and as collages. The collage is then transferred to the birch panel piece by piece, and she overlaps each of the fragments to avoid gaps appearing as the adhesive dries.
Jane works exclusively with archival materials, using acrylic gel medium as an adhesive and applying multiple layers of protective varnish. She was initially unsure about the best choice of varnish to protect her work as she wanted to prevent darkening but has opted for Montana matt spray varnish and applies a number of coats to her finished work.
Jane regularly walks across the moors with her dog Eddie, drawing inspiration from the landscape as a recurring presence in her images. What she describes as “an enduring love of the ocean” is also reflected in her works, including Still There.
The collage depicts a transparent, almost ghost-like boat drifting in the middle of a vast seascape. She sees her works as metaphors for emotional states, with the boat “being carried along in something greater than itself.”
“At one point, somebody owned that book, or maybe it was a gift. By making this work I feel as though I’m continuing that history.
Although she doesn’t class herself as an overtly political artist, sustainability is something she takes seriously. This aspect of her practice was recognised by the organisation, Outside In, due to her reuse of photography books, responsibly sourced birch ply, and focus on nature.
Alongside her original works, Jane also produces limited-edition giclée prints. Every artwork is professionally photographed, and she works closely with the photographer to ensure the printed version remains faithful to the original.
She limits print runs in order to maintain quality and consistency, while still allowing her to provide affordable versions of her original works to customers. Working from a relatively small studio also means that she has control over both production and storage.
Jane only recently began selling her work in 2025 through Derbyshire Open Arts. The trail was cancelled this year but this created an opportunity for her to be involved in organising Glossop Open Arts as part of High Peak Open studios with nine other artists in May. She then successfully launched her own Open Studio and Gallery at Elf cottage in Charlesworth.
Jane’s work is available to purchase at https://exhibtd.com/artists/jfantomart
Header image: Jane Fantom, The Season Turns (detail), Acrylic and found imagery on birch ply, 42cm x 29.7cm, 2026, £300
