Paper Artworks by Paper Artist Jane Ponsford

In my quest for interesting paper artists, I tend to drown in an ocean of paper-craft artists on Instagram. So you can imagine how pleasantly excited I got after finding this jewel of a paper artist: Jane Ponsford. I feel much emotion for Jane’s artworks, as they are deliberately textural and analogue by nature.

Jane Ponsford is a London- based artist and papermaker. She exhibits all over the UK and often teaches within an outer landscape or in galleries and museums. She works using repetitive processes, constructing sculptural forms made up of hundreds of near identical fragments to make bookworks, sculpture and installations.

Although in the past she has used a variety of materials, recently she has mainly concentrated on working with handmade paper, which she makes herself.
“I enjoy using this material because it brings together surface and form. It is evocative, reminiscent of documentation and archives. Staining and tearing easily, it can be seen as the receptive surface for forensic investigation or a blank form to catch light or shadow. Much of my work outside involves papermaking. I love the contradictory nature of working with a fragile, ephemeral material in difficult, dirty surroundings at the mercy of the weather”.

In 2007, Ponsford was awarded an Arts Council grant for a 12-month papermaking project named Papertrails. This project was inspired by the natural environment and and included a series of papermaking workshops and sculpturing outdoors.In 2015, she has taken part in Select Showcase, Cheltenham and CHALK, Winchester UK. Recently, Ponsford began experimenting with twisting and dyeing Lokta paper to make thread, which she weaves in order to create sheets of paper for her next art project.
I strongly recommend following paper artist Jane Ponsford and her work process on her Instagram page. It’s worth checking out!