Janice Hunter has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Majoring in Sculpture and Photography) and lives on a small working farm in West Gippsland. She had a slight deviation from full time art practice to raise a family and run a table fruit olive business, although she always contributed to local art shows and prizes. As the family grew more independent, Janice resumed full time art practice with notable exhibitions at Yering Station Sculpture Art Prize, Tesselaar Sculpture Prize, Neerim Sculpture Prize and recently at WAS Gallery.
In 2023 Janice completed her first Certificate from “The Sogestu School of Ikebana of Japan”. This course opened up a whole new way of seeing with respect, admiration and appreciation for Japanese techniques, aesthetics and the language of patterns. Rather than straight forward cultural appropriation, Janice hoped to use the teachings and the stories of the Japanese culture in her present work by representing her interpretation of the concepts. The exhibition, mono no aware, included sculptures of foliage and flowers created with paper, wire and reclaimed wood. As well as collages made from handmade paper of birds and native plants seen on her property. She also created paintings on recovered timber from a Himalayan Cedar and shell paintings influenced by the historical Japanese game kai – awase : the shell-matching game.
