Latest News: January 2026
Painting Britten project – update
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
One hundred watercolours, finished at the end of September, are now being framed at 'The Framing Room'; a company run by Jacob Everett situated in Brockley, south London. A highly recommended business I could not be more delighted with how the paintings are being framed.
In collaboration with the Bittern Press, based in Suffolk, we are nearing the completion of a book of the paintings, which will be launched on Thursday, 18 June during the 2026 Festival at Britten's former home, The Red House. The book, 'Painting Britten', will be soft-backed, approximately 224 pages, with each painting accompanied by a commentary written by Andrew Plant.
All the original paintings will be for sale. The paintings and the book (together with a second Bittern publication: a book about the history of the Festival) can be viewed and purchased at the launch event which will be open to all. Please sign up to my newsletter for further information and for details of the launch, by joining my mailing list via the 'Contact' page on this website.
The 77th Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts runs from 12 –28 June 2026. I will be there throughout and hope to see many old and new friends during the fortnight. Don't miss the biggest party of 2026!
Another outing for Britten paintings in Finland
On 12th March 2023, my images of the Third Suite for Cello (Britten) were used again in a repeat of the Britten-Shostakovitch concert performed in Finland last summer. In a church (pictured) in Helsinki, cellist Lauri Kankkunen performed the solo piece. Next to him was a large screen depicting my paintings of each movement of the work as the music progressed. The photo shows the first movement of the piece: Lento (Introduzione).
‘A Picture of Health' January 9–13 2023
In January, I contributed a triptych of oil paintings to a project entitled ‘ A Picture of Health’ – an experimental venture which aimed to employ art-science to explore what this phrase means to society today.
The project was initially launched in 2019 by the Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) to collect interpretations from a cross section of society, to be published in a book of the same title. A range of people were asked to contribute their creations, from healthcare and community workers, scientists, artists, politicians, LMS staff, and well known faces including the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, author Ben Okri, playwright Willy Russell and poet Michael Rosen.
To celebrate the publication of ‘A Picture of Health’ the MRC LMS hosted an exhibition of these artworks in January 2023, on the top floor of a new state-of-the-art MRC LMS research building on the Hammersmith Hospital Campus. Panel discussions involving project contributors, LMS and MRC researchers and Imperial College academics took place over three days. ‘Picture of Health’ was the very first event to be held in this exciting new building. I was honoured and delighted to have been asked to take part.
For more information about my paintings for this project and my entry in the book, please visit:
https://stories.lms.mrc.ac.uk/jane-mackay/index.html
10/6/22
Kangasala Classic Music Festival, Finland 16–19 June 2022
I was very pleased to be asked to supply images of all thirteen paintings in my series of Britten Third Suite for Cello for this music festival in Finland. The painting images will be projected on to a big screen during a concert which features this work. They will also be used in the concert programme, together with background information about the paintings and their creation.
For more information about this concert, see the weblink https://www.kangasalaclassic.fi/sielunveljet . (A translation of the Finnish can be organised using Google translate).
30/6/19
Rachel Vogeleisen, photographer, specialises in portraiture, seeing her work as a collaboration with her subject telling the best story about themselves. I took part in her project celebrating 'Women over 50 who reinvented themselves': a series of photographs aiming to inspire women of all ages to realise their dreams.
The portraits were exhibited at the Brick Lane Gallery Portraits Exhibition (27 June—8 July 2019) and the photo below shows me with my portrait at the private view of the show. The painting I am holding is Hare in a Snare, not a 'music-painting' but a protest against the horrific practice of ensnaring wild animals.
14/3/19
In February we created a new festival of art, music and discussion, Aesynth, held at the In-Spire Galerie, Dublin. The aim of the festival was to explore the phenomenon of synaesthesia through concerts, an exhibition of music paintings, panel discussion and film sessions. An account of our festival will follow in due course but, for the time being, our website www.aesynth.ie will give you an idea of what took place.
The panel members assemble for the session on synaesthesia at the Aesynth Festival. L to R: Tay Aziz (Chair), Prof Fiona Newell, Dr Andrew Plant, Siobhán Doyle, Dr Ciarán Crilly and Jane Mackay
Photo: Richard Roche