Jan Spencer

Jan creates oil crayon collages and handmade books.

She’s inspired by walking, camping and cycling in Australia and abroad and always carries her handmade diaries. Jan draws en plein air or compiles works informed by vignettes of the day.

In the studio Jan works from crayon or pencil diary images. She crayons on coloured papers which are torn into shapes, the thick dense crayon plays with the torn edges of the coloured papers, when happy she disassembles them and pastes them onto Japanese paper. After drying, they are pasted onto art boards, pressed and varnished to seal the crayon.

Her crayon paper scraps or prints of her artwork are used for covers on her handmade artist and travel diaries. These diaries have exposed bindings, with high quality papers and open flat to make it easier to write and draw in. Many have compensatory strips allowing for images or photos to be pasted into the books.