Jane Trotter Collection

We are all familiar with the idea of the ‘circle of life’ – the growth and transformation from birth to death – a renewal and rebirth. In ‘Come Full Circle’ I explore the themes of life and death, departure and return, of coming ‘full circle’ and completing the cycle. Our life’s journey can take us on many alternative paths. Sometimes we circle around, double back, feel stalled or rush ahead. Sometimes we briefly depart from our usual route but then find ourselves returning again to more familiar territory. Perhaps it’s the pull towards our true nature, of coming home to our core values and beliefs and having those ripple out into the world again. Whatever the journey and path we take, hopefully we’ll become a little wiser in the process, leaving a legacy of hope and understanding for our next generation.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Imagine a giant and cataclysmic burst of energy from some distant nebulae generating cosmic particles surging through the galaxy as a gaseous pulsating wave, enveloping everything in its path. A strange, haunting beauty belies the shockwave’s destructive power in this surreal and evocative image.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Some images feel so delicate that I’m almost afraid to touch them. ‘Angel Wing’ stirs these very protective emotions in me as I imagine a beautiful bonelike wing, exquisitely detailed yet remarkably fragile.

As if poised in space and glowing with an ethereal blue aura, ‘Angel Wing’ possesses its own mystical, divine qualities. I always feel a calmness come over me when I look at this image – a quiet contemplative mood and sense of peace.

‘Angel Wing’ certainly had a touch of the divine in its creation. During the entire photo shoot, this was the only shot which captured the wing’s mysterious beauty with such clarity. Just the right amount of serendipitous lighting coupled with an almost miraculous alignment of the tiny ridges all came together for that singular moment when I took the shot. Captured in an instant and then lost, my Angel only gave me the briefest glimpse of her seraphic form.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

‘Blinded by the Light’ is one of the images I created as part of my photographic study on ‘Lines and Curves’. It was a very serendipitous find as I wasn’t expecting my office furniture to be quite that engaging! Who’d have thought my desk lamp could lead me on such an interesting journey.

As it happens, creating the image proved to be a great deal more difficult than I anticipated and it became as much a study in patience and perseverance as it was for exploring shapes and patterns. But it’s an image which always reminds me that the process and application we bring to our creative work can be just as important as the spark of inspiration which ignited us in the first place.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

I love the sense of rhythm created in this triptych. Each panel has a repeating pattern, which, in turn, interconnects across the whole image in a strong diagonal interplay. The repetition of line and form is accentuated by the angles and textures, and the beautiful golden light falling on the numerous ridges transforms them into magical terraces of gold.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

In ‘Colour Cathedral’ I feel as if I’m walking down a long, darkened isle. Everything is hushed and quiet. With solemn reverence I look up and before me a beautiful stained-glass window appears – the light shining through in a wondrous communion of colour. I almost feel as if I could touch the divine.

In my early 20s I was in England for around three months and had the opportunity to visit several old cathedrals. I remember walking inside, gazing upwards and being completely awestruck. Quite apart from the enormous skill, engineering and craftsmanship required, the sheer magnificence and grandeur of vision was quite breath taking.

Not surprisingly, my inspiration for ‘Colour Cathedral’ comes equally from the awe-inspiring vaulted arches and magnificent stained-glass windows found in these exquisite buildings. Perhaps on a slightly smaller scale, I hope the image evokes similar feelings to those of entering such a revered place.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Playing with minimal elements in my photographs is something which I very much enjoy – the challenge of successfully achieving the right mix of proportion and placement can be tricky but a ‘less is more’ approach is usually how I like to work.

‘Cross Purposes’ is a good example. The stark and simple intersecting lines in each panel seem to dance with each other, the middle panel’s more rakish angle adding a touch more attitude to the choreography.

A burnished copper colour palette surrounds my linear ‘dancers’ in a warm rich glow and adds the final, subtle touch to this minimalist triptych.

This artwork is also available as a set of THREE individually framed panels.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

‘Culinary Connection’ is all about the simple and communal act of sharing a meal. We seem to have so little time in our busy lives to sit down together, share good food, good conversation and make good memories. I wanted to represent the constant hubbub of juggling jobs, appointments and family, and how easy it is for these things to get away on us, by using the triptych format and having the knives and forks spiral and cartwheel from one panel to the next.

Just as importantly, I also wanted to convey an idea of unity and connection with all of the cutlery overlapping and pointing inwards, as well as linking the forks across each panel. Life would be so much richer if we all made time to come together across the dinner table and enjoy good cuisine and lively conversation a little more often!

This artwork is also available as a set of THREE individually framed panels.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

What would life be like on another world? Would the landscape and environment be inviting and habitable, or brutal and challenging in the extreme? ‘Electric Pagoda’ is my imagining of a barren, inhospitable world where vast windswept dunes are punctuated by foreboding alien towers. Crackling and hissing with electrical pulses, it’s hard to distinguish whether the tower is the cause of such atmospheric chaos or whether it stands in heroic defiance against the relentless bombardment.

Who or what would reside inside? What stories could be told of their strange and perilous existence? For the moment, the ‘Electric Pagoda’ keeps its secrets well hidden.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Paring down an image to its most basic design structure is one of the things I enjoy most about working with abstracts. In some ways, it’s a bit like learning to see the wood from the trees, searching for the simplest presentation amongst a bewildering overabundance of compositional possibilities. Deciding where and how to place that minimal material within the frame has caused me many creative conundrums.

Such was the case with ‘Encoiled’. The object itself is very simple, but I could manipulate it into many varied positions, and equally, move myself around to take advantage of different points of view. Narrowing down these possibilities and refining my approach took several days’ attempts before I was satisfied I was on the right track. Finally I could find my way out of the forest, following the simplest of curves as my guiding path.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Who hasn’t looked up at the night sky, pondered their existence and felt humbled by the sheer unfathomable expanse of the universe? On clear, starry nights my gaze often turns skywards and I find myself imagining if some other being on another world is doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. ‘First Contact’ brings me closer to these distant galaxies and nebulae and I envision what life would be like on one of these mysterious worlds. As cosmic fingers reach out to make their ‘first contact’, I’m left wondering what unknown encounters await.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

As the title suggests, ‘Genesis’ is about beginnings. A metaphor for our own life’s journey, we see the first signs of life sprouting forth – a singular shaft of green asserts itself, heralding new growth and the beginning of new life. Blood red veins are fashioned from out of the darkness and emerge to flank the central panel, nourishing and affirming the fragile life held within. At the same time they pulsate with a promise of fuelling and embracing an unknown future.

This artwork is also available as a set of THREE individually framed panels.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Playing with slower shutter speeds and moving the camera is a favourite technique of mine. Never knowing quite what I’ll end up with, viewing each image for the first time comes with equal measures of anticipation and trepidation. I can have spectacular successes and spectacular failures, but I do love the excitement and challenge of these shoots as they often develop into a great learning experience.

‘Golden Spirals’ is one such image where, after a lengthy process of experimentation and refinement, everything came together. Reviewing my past attempts with a helpful dose of good humour, I soon learned what worked and what didn’t, and managed to devise a particular circular motion with the camera over a specific location above the object. I was delighted to see how the light accentuated each gesture and spiralling sensation, so I focused on the central blue cross diagonals and began to imagine the blades of a wind turbine creating tiny vortexes of golden light.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

I’m not a great imbiber of wine, but creating this image did tickle my fancy. I wanted to convey the feeling of slight inebriation – where you take a second glance into your wine glass as things suddenly don’t appear quite as they should. Wavy, sinuous lines of colour drift languidly across your gaze and seem to take on an almost amorphous form, wafting into your mouth and nostrils. Somewhere in your ‘happy place’ you notice that things look upside down but this is of little importance. In that haze of slight confusion, you begin to ponder the question which has been on your mind for the last half hour – should I have had that extra ‘Half a Glass’?

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

I have a beautiful peace lily in my kitchen which requires regular care and attention. One morning I placed it on the bench to do some watering and noticed the sun shining brilliantly through its glossy leaves. Traces of tiny veins and more prominent ridges leap out as one leaf in particular, adopted a striking, backlit green glow. I grabbed my camera and took a few quick pictures before the sun retreated behind several grey, dirty looking clouds.

As I reviewed what I’d taken that morning, I found myself imaging the intricate and detailed patterning on the leaf as the folds and creases of thick, luxurious curtains. Wondering how best to illustrate this, I hit upon using a vertical styled triptych to emphasise the long, flowing lines and sense of undulating fabric. I also had a ready-made ‘window’ within the three long panels, across which ‘Leaf Drapery’ could be elegantly pulled.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

I’ve always been drawn to visual puzzles and enjoy artwork which confuses the eyes and teases the brain. Even from early childhood, the wonderfully intriguing and stimulating Escher drawings with their never-ending staircases or myriad of black and white birds flying in opposite directions would capture my imagination and make me think.

‘Linear Perspective’ is one such ‘visual puzzle’ which I had enormous fun creating. With a nod to Escher, I wanted to play with changing perspectives and make the viewer question what they were interpreting. I love the way the lines will suddenly ‘pop’ in and out – sometimes you feel as if you’re looking into a corner and then suddenly the opposite is true and you’re observing an outer edge. It’s as if the triptych is in constant flux as your eyes scan up and down.

Many of Escher’s drawings are in black and white, so I too chose a minimalist colour palette to emphasise the strong contrasts and accentuate the angular shape and design.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

‘Lines of Enquiry’ was pure experimentation and serendipity. I didn’t have any agenda or preconceptions when I sat down to explore the results of my photo shoot. The combination of these images just appealed to my abstract eye.

I really enjoy travelling back and forth amongst the colourful lines. In places I’m thrust forward into a type of intersection where elements start to converge, but then the reverse ensues, the colours become more divergent, almost like a fan. I find myself bouncing up and down the triptych, tracing the different colours through the three panels, each trajectory slightly different, each connection equally curious and provoking, each ‘line of enquiry’ equally satisfying.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

There’s something powerful about the constant motion of waves crashing upon a beach. Gathering momentum, they surge forward until in one climatic moment, their energy is lost and they’re subsumed into the vast ocean once more. ‘Melting Wave’ embodies the transience and impermanence of such fleeting moments. As you move across the triptych, there’s an inherent opposition of the wave rising and striving to reach its apogee, only to be thwarted and relentlessly pulled back down again at the final moment, its power and impact simply melting away.

This artwork is also available as a set of THREE individually framed panels.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

Many of my images have a ‘space’ theme and ‘Orbital Congestion’ is no exception. The numerous spheres of different sizes and colours reminded me of larger planets with their multiple satellites and orbiting moons. It’s almost impossible to imagine any of these escaping a major collision or other similar catastrophe.

This artwork is also available as a set of THREE individually framed panels.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

‘Over the Shoulder’ can best be described as an evolution and a revolution. This triptych was produced at a time when I was reviewing some of my earlier work to see if any of the images were suitable candidates for reworking into a triptych format. I had liked the original source image for many years and had shied away from undertaking any drastic alterations. However, sometimes we need to challenge ourselves to adopt a different perspective – sometimes a leap of faith is required to move ourselves forward.

Taking that first step and abandoning my reservations, I began to dissect my beloved image. While the original was already intricate in design with a complex interplay of overlapping lines and curves, the triptych took on a whole new dimension. From amongst seemingly disconnected elements, a head, shoulder and torso emerged. A new ‘life’ sprang forth from where I had previously feared to tread.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.

The soft fragility of a delicate flower unfurling itself to the world was my inspiration for ‘Tulip’. Gently curving ‘petals’ emerge, and with them come the promise of pure and simple beauty. Sometimes the softest whisper is enough to engage and beguile us and I feel this way about ‘Tulip’ – I wanted to create an image which speaks to the viewer on a very quiet and introspective level, evoking feelings of inner stillness and serenity.

This original work by renowned New Zealand artist and photographer Jane Trotter is reproduced using high quality dye sublimation printing onto fabric and mounted onto your choice of OneFrame fabric tension frame.