Jane Cruickshank was born in 1976. She studied Fine Art at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland, completing her Master of Arts degree in 1999.

This talented young Scottish artist has won numerous awards and scholarships. These include: Cooper and Lybrand Competition 1996; John Kinross Scholarship to Florence in 1997; and the James Torrence Memorial Award from the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1998.

Still relatively inexpensive for the quality of art work, Jane Cruickshank paintings have the look of a good art investment and it is easy to see why. Using recognisable subject matter Cruickshank employs an intense realism in her paintings. Subjects have a luminescence and clarity that makes them appear as if they could move off the canvas. Her work is immediately accessible.

Jane says, “ I started painting the figure while at Art College. Mainly self-portraits or members of the family usually on large canvases with the figure placed off centre to create an image of vulnerability. Pattern and surface is a tool that I use to explore how the dominance of appearance manipulates the identity”