Jane Canfield
Jane Canfield is an Australian landscape painter whose semi-abstracted, tonal paintings distil the country she lives in and travels through down to a few essential shapes and a carefully reduced palette. Working in oil, acrylic and gouache, her aim is always to pare back and simplify – while leaving the viewer able to recognise the landscape that inspired each work.
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From plein air study to studio painting
Canfield’s process begins outdoors. She makes quick gouache studies and drawings en plein air, often with colour swatches alongside to hold the light and tones in memory, then returns to the studio to build larger paintings from those studies. Layering and rubbing back the surface, she arrives at what she calls “semi-abstracted tonalism”: free brushwork, soft edges and colour as the driving force of the composition. Her studio is an 1850s sandstone inn west of the Blue Mountains, looking out over rolling hills, and she gathers new material travelling in her 1974 VW Kombi, “Dot”, with her dogs.
Background
Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1967, Canfield grew up in an artistic family – her father, Tony Canfield, was a collected artist, inventor and designer, and weekends were spent camping while he sketched and painted. She studied graphic design at Randwick TAFE in Sydney and worked in the industry for 20 years, first coming to notice for her strong lino-cut prints, before becoming a full-time painter in 2004. A WIRES wildlife volunteer for 17 years, she remains committed to environmental and animal welfare causes.
Awards and recognition
- 2026 – Winner, inaugural Hill Painting Prize, Blue Mountains
- 2024 – Winner, best coastal painting, Waverley Woollahra 9x5 Landscape Prize
- 2014 – Acquired into the Kedumba Drawing Award
- 2010 – Winner, Rose Lindsay Art Award; finalist, Mosman Art Prize
- 2008 – Winner, BMAN Crockett Contemporary Prize (acquisitive)
- Finalist: Paddington Art Prize, NSW Parliament Plein Air Art Prize, Calleen Art Award, Regional Landscape Prize (Orange)
Canfield has held more than a dozen solo exhibitions, most recently Elemental at Art2Muse, Sydney, and Connection to Place at Manyung Gallery, Mount Eliza (both 2025). Her paintings are held in private and corporate collections in Australia and internationally, and her work has featured in Vogue Living, Australian House & Garden and Australian Country Style.
View Jane Canfield’s paintings at SOHO Galleries in Woollahra, Sydney, or contact us to arrange delivery Australia-wide.