NEW – Greetings Cards

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Jane Lee McCracken

New greetings card range by Jane Lee McCracken – four designs depicting original Biro drawings.

This spring sees the launch of Jane’s new greetings card range featuring a selection of her most iconic Biro drawings to date. Printed in the UK, these high quality 15 x 21cm cards capture the intricate detail of each poignant drawing.

Greetings cards range depicting ‘Russian Doll’, ‘The Sideboards II’, ‘Sweet’ and ‘Our Forefathers’.

In stock at Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s premier design store Whosit & Whatsit, Jane’s cards are now available to purchase from her online shop.

Sets of 4 cards are individually wrapped with envelopes and priced at £10 including postage and packaging per set.

To purchase cards sets please visit www.janeleemccracken/shop

‘The Sideboard II’ Greetings Card

For further details please contact jane@janeleemccracken.co.uk

Seasons Greetings

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Jane Lee McCracken

This year’s Christmas card focuses on the plight of refugees and animals caught in the crossfire of war through a little sculpture tattoo drawing in Biro on a found china hand.

Season greetings and a happy and peaceful 2016 to all.

Best wishes,

Jane

Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken, on a china hand purchased in a local charity shop.

Reflection of dove drawing on the back of china hand.

Reflection of back of china hand with drawing of Lily and dove.

Sculpture tattoo on glass shelf.

‘War + Peace’ Book Update

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘War + Peace’, Selected Biro Drawings 2008 – 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken, Front Cover

This October book No.1/50 of ‘War + Peace’ was auctioned at the Savoy, London and raised £400 for Save Wild Tigers, an organisation dedicated to saving the last 3,200 wild tigers.

There is still time to order a copy before Christmas! ‘War + Peace’ is a limited edition publication of 50 books worldwide, signed and numbered with an original gold tiger drawing made on the back page of each copy.

Here are some page images of ‘War + Peace’:

‘War + Peace’, ‘Kaboom! Where did all the Animals Go?’, 2010 ”TV Screen III – Where East Meets West, Forests’ Memories’, 2010

'TV Screen II - Where Wolves and Bears Dare', 'War + Peace', 2014

‘War + Peace’, ‘TV Screen II – Where Wolves and Bears Dare’, 2011

‘War + Peace’, ‘Butterfly Lover’ 2014

'War + Peace', Selected Biro Drawings 2008 - 2014, by Jane Lee McCracken, 'American Dream' 2014

‘War + Peace’, ‘American Dream’ 2014

About:

“War + Peace’, brings together a selection of my Biro drawings from several bodies of work produced between 2008 – 2014 including ‘Tales from the East’, ‘The Woodcutter’s Cottage’, ‘In Homage to the Last Great Carnivores of Eurasia’ and recent artwork for conservation projects. Inspired by my passion for childhood memoirs, fairy tales, travel, forests and animals and continuing exploration of the themes of ‘war’ and ‘loss’, these multiplex, layered drawings in colour or black Biro are often used as inspiration to create objects and installations. Taking photographs of films and documentaries, my muse Lily, people, animals and found objects as the foundation for my work and building layers of drawn images in Biro, my aim is to make art that represents the beauty and brutal reality of life thus creating ‘memorials of lives lived, both human and animal and ways of life lost’.”

To order a copy or for more information please visit my shop.

Original Gold Tiger drawing on back page of each copy.

Biro Colour Palette and New Work in Progress…

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Jane Lee McCracken

Detail of colour Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

Detail photograph of colour Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

The following photographic images detail small fragments of a new colour Biro drawing in progress. The drawing is part of a new body of work exploring the meaning of the word ‘War’. This particular piece has been months in the making.

Detail of white horse, new colour Biro drawing

The colours in my drawings are mixed one on top of the other using 8 – 10 different colour Biro’s from a pack of 20 pens, in order to create the exact colours required. When painting in the past I would create a spectrum of colours using Red, Yellow, Cobalt, White, Paynes Grey and Yellow Ochre but with the pack of colour Biros I use this is impossible as the colours are geared towards children and include fluorescent hues. You have to be inventive when mixing the colours within the drawing! However Biro ink is a beautiful gelatinous ink which when applied to a surface achieves a vibrancy and volume rather like print pigments – one of the reasons I love Biro!

Detail of Roxy, colour Biro drawing

When painting, colours can be ready mixed on the palette so they can be reused within the canvas. When using colour Biro each colour has to be created or recreated within the drawing by layering different colour pens on top of one another. It takes a day to achieve 1/2 – 1 inch of a colour composition because you are often quadrupling the amount of pen layers as opposed to the fewer layers required to create the shades of a one colour drawing.

‘Pilgrim’, small detail of colour Biro drawing

Within my work I like to use images of people, animals and objects that play a part in my life and this particular drawing memorialises a yearling and a mare who belonged to friends and sadly are no longer with us.

Still some way to go…

‘War’ – New Multi-media Project

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Jane Lee McCracken

Photo image of new colour Biro drawing in progress

After a year making art for conservation, a new body of work on the subject of war is in progress!

This multi-media project inspired by found images, objects and films will explore the impact of ‘war’ on humans and animals in a series of pieces examining the emotional and physical implications of war, eternally memorializing the subjects featured.

With an ongoing theme aiming to view victims as individuals not statistics, ‘War’ will consider in-depth the equality of suffering between both animals and humans as well as analyzing the word ‘war’ in other contexts.

Keep up to date with project progress at:

www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/news

‘Pilgrim’, A Special Commission

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘Pilgrim’, 2015 colour Biro drawing

‘Pilgrim’, 2015 colour Biro drawing. Sadly Pilgrim is no longer with us, he passed away during a life-saving operation at just a year old.

His kind owner Heidi Carr had agreed to my photographing Pilgrim a few days after his birth and throughout his life in order to capture each stage of his journey and incorporate his image in a new body of work, continuing the exploration of War and its impact on people and animals. Pilgrim was to feature in a drawing remembering the causatum for horses and livestock during war. Between us we have many photographs of Pilgrim so he will continue to shine brightly in a future drawing ‘The Road Through France’. Heidi wished for a drawing of Pilgrim as a yearling, as she remembered him. I retained the flecks of hay sprinkled on Pilgrim’s forelock as they looked like little stars. ‘Pilgrim’ attempts to capture the gentle, sweet-natured young horse who touched so many.

Pilgrim in a field of buttercups, 2013

'Running Free', Pilgrim at a few weeks old, 2012

‘Running Free’, Pilgrim at a few weeks old, 2013

‘War + Peace’, Selected Biro Drawings 2008 – 2014

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘War + Peace’, Selected Biro Drawings 2008 – 2014 Limited Edition Hardback Book by Jane Lee McCracken, 2014, Cover

Published today, I am delighted to say that 50 limited edition copies of my new book are now available. Here is some information about ‘War + Peace’ and a look inside!

” ‘War + Peace’, by multimedia Artist Jane Lee McCracken brings together a selection of her intricate Biro drawings. This beautifully produced hardback book replicates every detail of Jane’s black and colour Biro drawings from several bodies of work spanning 6 years, including, ‘Tales from the East’, ‘The Woodcutter’s Cottage’, ‘In Homage to the Last Carnivores of Eurasia’ and her recent artwork for conservation projects. Inspired by her passion for childhood memoirs, fairy tales, travel, forests and animals and her continuing exploration of the themes of ‘war’ and ‘loss’, multimedia artist Jane makes multiplex, layered drawings in colour or black Biro, using her drawings as inspiration to create objects and installations. Taking photographs of films and documentaries, her muse lily, people, animals and found objects as the foundation of her work, she builds complex layers of drawn images in Biro as if film still projections, resulting in monotone or colour abstracted pieces with an ethereal, cinematic quality. Her aim is to make art that represents the beauty and brutal reality of life thus creating “memorials of lives lived, both human and animal and ways of life lost”. Evoking consideration of loss whether through war or disaster, her work draws upon empathy for the emotional or physical scars experienced by humans, animals or the environment.”

EDITION:

Limited Edition of 50 Hardback Books

Signed and numbered in gold with personal dedication option included

Original Gold Tiger Drawing produced in each copy

To purchase or for further information:

www.janeleemccracken.co.uk/shop/artbook

Here is a taster of what’s inside!

‘American Dream’, ‘War + Peace’ 2014

‘Our Forefathers’ & ‘Mummy Bear and Baby Bear’, ‘War + Peace’, 2014

‘Butterfly Lover’, ‘War + Peace’, 2014

‘The Cupboard’ & ‘Sindy and the Troika’, ‘War + Peace’, 2014

‘TV Screen II – Where Wolves and Bears Dare’, ‘War + Peace’, 2014

‘Shh, it’s a Tiger!’, ‘War + Peace’, 2014, Back Cover

Original Gold Tiger Drawing in each book.

‘Russian Doll’ – Remembering Female Victims of War

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘The Russian Doll’, red, black, blue and green Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

Adopting the iconic image of the Russian doll, this drawing was made as a memorial to women and young girls who were/are the victims of violence during war. A Russian Doll painted with the tranquil scene of Ivan Shishkin’s ‘Morning in a Pine Forest’, 1889, one of Russia’s most popular paintings, is layered with the image of Russian soldiers fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. Now a well documented fact, graphically conveyed in such writings as Anthony Beevor’s ‘Berlin: The Downfall 1945’ 2002, this piece represents the genocidal rape perpetrated by the Red Army as it surged towards Berlin. The novelist Vasily Grossman, a front line war correspondent with the Red Army, dismayed at the mass rape committed by so many Russian soldiers on not only German women but liberated Polish and Russian women wrote,

“Horror in the eyes of women and girls” (‘A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-1945’).

The consequences of such violations often resulted/result in suicide, unwanted pregnancies and lifelong psychological and physical scars. By layering a self-portrait as part of the Russian Doll’s face, thus bridging awareness between statics and reality, this representation suggests that during war violence is indiscriminate and targets females of all ages and backgrounds. Often a strategic weapon of war that has been used in conflicts since records began, it is still common today, recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo and with many incidents of rape being reported in the current conflict in Iraq. At the very edge of the drawing appear the legs of a young girl, a reminder of the very young victims of war rape.

For further images from this series please visit my website.

‘The Sideboard II’ – Remembering Children Affected by War

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

'The Sideboard II', 2009, red Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCrackenThis triptych portrays memories of a small child at play in a sideboard, within the safety of ‘home’, before the onset of war. It was inspired by the girl in the red coat from the film ‘Schindler’s List’, 1993, Steven Spielberg, as she wanders through the Kraków Ghetto while it is being ‘cleared’’. The Artist uses her niece to model for this piece to highlight the indiscriminate nature of war and how it can affect ‘anyone’ and to provoke understanding of loss by seeing victims as individuals and not statistics.

‘The Sideboard II’, red Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

This triptych of Biro drawings portrays memories of a small child at play with a sideboard, within the safety of ‘home’, before the onset of war – perhaps a cottage in a small village in Eastern Europe.

It was inspired by the ‘girl in the red coat’ from the film ‘Schindler’s List’, 1993, Steven Spielberg, as she wanders through the Kraków Ghetto while it is being ‘cleared’ by German soldiers in 1943.

‘The Sideboard I, II & III’, black and red Biro drawings by Jane Lee McCracken

With my sister’s permission I used photos I had taken of my niece at play in the family kitchen as reference for the drawings. These pieces highlight the indiscriminate nature of war and how it can affect ‘anyone’ and attempt to convey understanding of loss by seeing victims as individuals and not statistics.

For further images from this series please visit my website.

‘The Cupboard’ – Remembering Civilians Caught up in War

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Jane Lee McCracken

‘The Cupboard’, original black Biro drawing by Jane Lee McCracken

This simple drawing represents the memory of civilians caught up or lost during war.

During a stay in a cottage in Transylvania, Romania, whilst on a trip bear tracking this painted corner cupboard evoked to me the quiet beauty of how we go about embellishing the space we call home and the private and expressive meanings behind everything we display in that space.

For those caught up in war, losing perhaps what is perceived by others to be just a simple jug, but to the owner of the possession is perhaps a priceless gift given by a beloved grandmother, adds yet more painful loss to the devastation experienced. Every object in our home tells a story and leaves behind a footprint of our existence.

For further pieces in this series please visit my website

Jane Lee McCracken, Artist

www.janeleemccracken.co.uk

Tag Archives: War

NEW – Greetings Cards

Seasons Greetings

‘War + Peace’ Book Update

Biro Colour Palette and New Work in Progress…

‘War’ – New Multi-media Project

‘Pilgrim’, A Special Commission

‘War + Peace’, Selected Biro Drawings 2008 – 2014

‘Russian Doll’ – Remembering Female Victims of War

‘The Sideboard II’ – Remembering Children Affected by War

‘The Cupboard’ – Remembering Civilians Caught up in War

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