Janine Graham
About Janine
Janine Graham
My work begins with looking — at landscape, at people, at objects, and at the quiet persistence of things that endure. I am interested in how memory is carried through material, how places and forms hold emotional weight, and how repetition and making become acts of attention.
I move between realism and abstraction because neither alone feels sufficient. Observation gives me structure; abstraction gives me permission. Together, they allow space for uncertainty, intuition, and discovery.
Whether working with paint, pencil, text, or found objects, I am drawn to processes that reveal time — weathering, wear, accumulation, and traces of touch. Making is how I think, and thinking is inseparable from the act of making.
Education & Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Art History — The Open University
- FdA Art and Design — Plymouth University
- Foundation Course in Music
Artist Biography
Janine Graham is a Jersey (UK)–based multidisciplinary artist whose practice moves between high-realism drawing and abstract expressionist painting. This duality underpins an exploratory body of work that values both technical rigour and the freedom to respond intuitively to subject, material, and process.
Working across painting, drawing, photography, writing, poetry, sculpture, and installation, Janine’s practice is driven by sustained curiosity and enquiry. Research into historical context, traditional media, and process-based making forms a foundation for work that remains open-ended and responsive. Much of her work is rooted in close observation of nature, landscape, and human presence, and explores themes of memory, resilience, continuity, and the passage of time.
Janine’s approach often investigates the tension between control and release, realism and abstraction, permanence and fragility. Making is central to her thinking — not as a means to an end, but as a way of understanding, testing, and discovering ideas through materials and repetition.
She holds a BA (Hons) in Art History from The Open University and an FdA in Art and Design from Plymouth University, alongside a foundation course in music.
Her academic background informs a strong awareness of historical context while supporting a contemporary, material-led practice.
Alongside her studio work, Janine has taught in art college settings, led workshops, and undertaken artist residencies. She has worked within both academic and community-based creative environments, valuing shared making, learning, and dialogue as integral to artistic life.
Creativity has been a constant throughout her life, extending beyond fine art into photography, garden design, and interior spaces. Her practice resists fixed categorisation, instead embracing experimentation, cross-disciplinary working, and sustained attention as essential components of a living, evolving practice.
Teaching, Residencies & Workshops
Janine has taught in art college settings and delivered workshops across a range of creative contexts. She has undertaken artist residencies that support place-based research and sustained material exploration, contributing to both her studio practice and public engagement.