Alumni of the 1980's

Jane Goodson SBA Fellow - left The Sele School in 1983 

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the Alumni page of The Sele School website especially as I left school way back in 1983!  I loved school and the teachers were so supportive.  I left with five O Levels and two A Levels. 

Over the years my career path has changed from Senior Department Administrator, Roche Products Ltd in Welwyn Garden City through to Practice Manager of a GP Surgery in Dorset, where I still live.  Nowadays it is quite common for people to have a variety of careers. However, I always had a lifelong love of art and this led me on to becoming a botanical artist.   

I paint in watercolour and (due to the complex nature of the detail I require) my paintings take between 50 – 100 hours to complete and contain the minutest details.  I also have a lifelong interest in the historical importance of botanical art; particularly the time of great voyages of discovery and enlightenment in Europe which has led me on to becoming an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society.

In 2012 I was elected to become a member of the Society of Botanical Artists and in 2018 was then elected as a Society of Botanical Artists Fellow. 

In 2016 I was awarded an RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Silver-Gilt medal for my series of Primula auricula paintings and I am currently working on my next RHS exhibition.

Back in 2018 I was invited to exhibit in Madrid at the ‘Tulipa Tulipae’, a collaboration between the Society of Botanical Artists, the Real Botanical Gardens in Madrid and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, Spain, 2018.  Until that trip I had never been to Madrid and I have to say it was quite a thrill to see one of my paintings used as part of the advertisement for the exhibition. 

                  Jane's painting of a Cardoon

Quite a lot of my botanical work is now in private collections in the UK, Spain, Canada, USA and in the Archives of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.

My advice to students at The Sele School now is, “do what you love and love what you do”.