049: Discover how UK Artist Jane Beaumont turned Self-judgment into Self-expression

 

PRESS PLAY TO LISTEN HERE

 

UK-based artist Jane Beaumont shares her lifelong connection to art, and how a love note from her husband encouraged her to embrace a role as a full-time artist.

Dubbed a daydreamer as a child, Beaumont’s youth was spent slightly disconnected from school. While art and creativity were ingrained in her, she kept her expression of them to herself and quietly did her own thing. At that young age, she was aware that there were multiple, better ways for teachers to connect with students, which she later channeled into her career as a teacher.

After a season as a therapist working with children, keeping her art in the background, Beaumont’s time at a retreat for creatives in Belfast allowed her to understand her need to bring her focus on her art to the forefront. “I [realized I] needed to bring this great desire for art and creativity right into the center of my life,” Beaumont muses. “Everything changed from that point [;] I brought it to where it needed to be.” 

Beaumont’s official turning point came at the beginning of March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. She discovered a note left by her husband in her art room that said: Invitation to Jane Beaumont to turn pro. When? Today.

 Beaumont knew, in her deep soul, that it was her time. And so she began her art practice. She started to sketch every day, soaked in inspiration on social media, and started to steer herself towards life as an artist intentionally.

 She also decided to launch a blog and track her progress as she delved into being a visual artist in her 60s. Using it as a self-help and self-identification tool, Beaumont discovered that it was easy to write and allowed her to take time for self-examination in a creative way.

 Simultaneously, Beaumont was continuing to explore her artistic passion with collage. Creating collages felt freeing for Beaumont, and she used it to explore her creativity. “[Collage] is very playful, very experimental [...] I was experiencing this really lovely way of coming into my creative space,” Beaumont explains. It eliminated her self-judgment and eventually allowed her to pivot into abstract work.

 As she let herself immerse herself in work that sparked her interest, Beaumont’s work on abstract pieces increased. She also stepped into the world of exhibiting and reflecting on the spaces and environments she exhibited in. One unusual spot? A gin distillery in Aldeburgh that houses 18 pieces of her work.

 Beaumont has created the habit of working every day in her art room. Armed with a large pot of tea, she starts her day writing, uncensored and unchecked. This lets her feel primed when she’s ready to start creating. She works in concentrated periods of up to 50 minutes and leaves the room before returning shortly after. The break allows her to have perspective on her work and identify what’s working or what needs changing.

 When asked what she loves about being an artist, Beaumont pauses before sharing:

 

I think we’re all artists. [I] think we’re designed to create and think we’re much more fully human when we are.

 

She explains that she believes creativity is embedded in everything we do and that the potential to embrace it more fully would lead to brain development, perspective, and better imagination and intuition.

 Beaumont has obviously embraced a life of creativity as she immerses herself with her peers in an eclectic artists’ group. She creates a motivational mindset through books and podcasts that inspire her and her self-affirmation as an artist. Beaumont also focuses on marketing and selling her art through her newsletter and social media, where she grows her art audience.

 When asked what she would share with a young 20-something version of herself, Beaumont replies: Keep a sketchbook, keep it alive. Keep it real. In a sketchbook, there is no failing; there’s no failure. Every day, do something, however small, just to keep it alive. Keep that inquiry going for the time when you can really give yourself to it in a bigger way.

Mentioned in this episode:

Book: How to be an Artist by Jerry Saltz

Quote: David Whyte, "Will you have confidence in what you love?" 

Artists: David Hockney & William Kentridge 

 

Connect with Jane

Instagram: @janesbeaumont 

Website: www.janebeaumont.art