Jane Guthleben

A love of travel, history and bold design intrigues this talented and curious artist, her detailed paintings and creative pursuits.

I grew up on a sheep farm in East Gippsland, Victoria. The farm was fairly isolated – it was about 30km to the nearest town – so I spent a lot of time on my own and did a lot of craft and drawing to fill in the time. My mum taught me a lot of different crafts, such as knitting, spinning, crochet and sewing, and I would spend hours doing pencil drawings, copying portraits from magazines. I started selling my pencil drawings at about age 15 at the local annual arts and crafts market.

As a teenager, I thought gardens and farm life were pretty boring and I couldn’t wait to leave for the bright lights of the big city. I headed overseas on exchange spending a year in Denmark where I was introduced to Scandinavian design and architecture, snow and hygge – the uniquely Danish practice of creating that special feeling of cosiness and happiness – and of course, pastries! It was all such an eye-opener after life on the farm. Then on I went to uni in Melbourne. I didn’t know whether to pursue art or writing, which I was good at in school. I chose journalism, which I don’t regret one bit as this saw me working in Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong until my early 30s.

I am a full-time artist and my studio is at home. I pretty much work office hours and am fairly disciplined and routine driven. After breakfast my husband and I will walk the dog, and then I’ll start in the studio. I like to do studies, small works or prep in the morning and larger works in the afternoon. I like deadlines – I think it’s the journalism training.