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Fine Art Kangaroo Island

Gallery - Australian Art, Silver Jewellery

Sisters in Print Exhibition – SALA 2023

Retrospective Works by Jenny Clapson and Janet Ayliffe

Exhibition Open August 1st – 31st 2023 at the National Wine Centre, Adelaide

Click the tabs below to see works by either Janet or Jenny
Janet AyliffeJenny Clapson

Janet Ayliffe was born and lived on Kangaroo Island prior to studying at the SA School of Art. There she met her sister-in-law to be Jenny Clapson, and the budding artists began creating art together. Following graduation in 1972, and Jenny’s relocation to Kangaroo Island, the two joined other studio artists to regularly meet, support and inspire each other over their respective 40+ year art careers.

Janet went on to teach painting to numerous students over 38 years and is a highly regarded and awarded printmaker/painter. She considers the natural world with wonder and reverence, as she does with her inner life, combining and layering these in a unique visual expression. She has contributed to every “How Do We Love Thee? KI” exhibition for SALA at National Wine Centre since 2010. Janet’s work for these exhibitions are pictures and drawings of her heartlands, on this long-ago island.

Jenny Clapson is arguably Kangaroo Island’s most celebrated artist whose work appears in State and National collections. Jenny grew up in Broken Hill and painted in her formative years with the ‘Brushmen of the Bush’. After graduating from the South Australian School of Art, where she met fellow artist Janet Ayliffe, Jenny worked remotely from Kangaroo Island for 40 years until her recent retirement. During these years, Jenny together with Janet, joined other studio artists to meet, support and inspire each other regularly.

Following an acclaimed solo exhibition “Shared Territory” at her gallery at Kingscote Wharf in the nineties, Jenny’s fascination with the jetty, and the Island’s marine environment, inspired her painting and printmaking practice. She created an emotive visual language built on memories of experiences and ideas formed from living close to the natural world and her life in the wider island community.

The National Gallery of Australia – Parliament House Collection, South Australian Art Gallery, Country Arts SA, Artbank and people from Australia and overseas are among those who have collected her work. This exhibition reprises examples of Jenny’s early printmaking practice when pioneering and developing her expertise in solar plate etching, as well as some examples of etchings created for the SALA KI National Wine Centre shows.