Jane Alexander has spent May 2026 immersed in experimentation at The Squatter’s Cottage, The Foundations, Portland. Working across painting, drawing, and sculpture during her Squatter’s Residency, Jane has embraced having the time and space to trial some cold wax in her paintings for the first time. In these layered surfaces, she’s chasing dreamy atmospheres. There’s a tension that comes with the rawness in these works too, a seeking of the invitation held in the underdone, that can somehow be resolved at the same time.
Jane’s drawings are filled with iterative mark making born from frottage rubbings created from the Squatter’s Cottage itself. There’s the grain from the weathered studio door and the pattern from the grate embedded in the side wall that join rubbings of refuse collected from the side of the road and the tip offerings. These impressions carry traces of The Foundations within them, holding a kind of memory of this place and time.
These same drawing marks echo through her sculptural practices. Actual old grates, salvaged steel and copper become parts of works partially buried in poured plaster forms which are then re-exposed through digging back into them. The rusting of lively steel along with the surprises revealed through her excavation processes enliven Jane. These works with elements of burial, corrosion and discovery are born of her imagination related to rich stories told to her by her dad of his times working in Antarctica in the 50’s, and Jane experiencing the uncovering of detritus from snow melt whilst in the snow herself. The cold spell that came with Jane’s arrival to the residency no doubt helped her imagine this plaster as snow, as she poured these works in the frost of the outside studio room.
Around the studio sit numerous small constructions of copper and cardboard in plaster, amongst steel reconfigured into geometric arrangements of hollow squares and rectangles. Jane says these forms embody “the unsaid words between her and her father” and are simple in approach. In some of these steel sculptures on-the-make, she talks of cutting through, introducing voids allowing viewers to peer more directly through the forms. This follows a mentorship session with head Foundations Artist Harrie Fasher. Being Janes’ first residency experience she’s thrown herself into all that she can including drawing in The Powerhouse, working in almost every space in and around the Squatter’s Cottage and even heading out to draw Portland in the cold of the night.
Not just to draw and paint, Jane has ventured out from the Squatter’s Cottage, to embrace the rhythms of life in Portland. Whether exercising with locals in an early bird session at the Ant Fitness gym next door, returning to the corner take away, enjoying the new Zig Zag Brewery at The Foundations or heading up the street for the likes of some roast beef and horseradish snags, at Williams and Son’s Butchery on Vale, she has relaxed into regional fair. However, Jane says her favourite place for a morning coffee is the quiet of The Squatter’s Cottage back studio stairs where the sun streams in. There’s a view to the garden from these stairs where her generous hands have been active in some vegie patch wrangling – giving needed breath to the kale, spinach and the little citrus in the kitchen garden.
Like so many artists, Jane doesn’t stop. She’s a tutor too. Heading back and forth to Sydney on the Lithgow train, each Wednesday to teach at Waverley Woollahra Art School where she leads Open Studio and Mixed Media Painting Practice classes and expressive landscape classes, she has bought back camaraderie in the form of friends from her National Art School days including Felicity Heffernan and Trenna Austin. With its two bedrooms and multiple studio options the Squatter’s Cottage is ripe for Artists in Residence to share the experience with others.
Although there is no pressure for outcomes as part of the Squatter’s Residency, Jane is energetically working towards her first solo exhibition as an Emerging Artist with Stella Downer Fine Art opening Saturday 11 July 2026 at 3pm in Sydney. No doubt, Jane’s ideas from and experiences at this residency will be imbued in the paintings and sculptures that she will present.
Other links:
Jane’s website: https://www.jalexander.art
Image credit N Mason
