Jan Ferrall
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Sydney and drawing as long as I remember, my dreams of pursuing an artistic career never eventuated until my children left the nest. An “autumn bloomer”, I became a successful full-time artist/potter for fifteen years until I returned to my earlier love of painting and drawing. Watercolour had tantalized me for years, it’s magical effects seemingly effortless and pure seduced me and I pursued this medium for the next five years learning through teaching. Mixed media seems a natural progression and I enjoy experimenting with watercolour and collage, pastel and acrylics. I am mainly self-taught, although I attend workshops and courses whenever possible to enhance this “creative joyride”. I love the freedom of playful experimentation, and try to follow my own muse. I belong to Hastings Valley Fine Art Association, and am curator and co-ordinator at our beautiful Port Macquarie gallery, NSW.
Achievements/Prizes
“People’s Choice” Bendemeer Art & Craft Ex. 2005
“People’s Choice” Beechwood Art & Craft Show 2006
“Highly Commended” Watercolour Comboyne Show 2008
“First Prize” Drawing HVFAA 25th Anniversary Summer Showcase 2008-9
“Commended” Contemporary “ “ “ “
“Commended” Watercolour Wauchope Country Music Fest. 2009
“Second Prize” Class “A” Camden Haven PAH & I Society 2009
“Commended” Annual Summer Showcase HVFAA 2012
Note: I have pottery and paintings hanging internationally including England, Canada, Japan, Holland, New Zealand and Indonesia.
Extra Information
1985 -1999 Artist/Potter.
2000 Began painting.
Mostly self-taught but attended courses with professional tutors.
Taught watercolour for five years.
Committee Member and Gallery Co-ordinator and for HVFAA for seven years
ARTIST'S REASON FOR PARTICIPATING
My reason for entering this wonderful project is to contribute in some small way to help save the exploitation and habitat of these beautiful animals.
Manis
At the end of July 2014, International Animal Rescue’s orangutan Centre in Ketapang received a three year old female orangutan called Manis. She was rescued from the district Simpang Hulu, close to Pontianak. She made the journey to Ketapang by plane with BKSDA (Forestry Dept) and handled the journey very well. BKSDA reported that they took her from a man who claimed that he found her alone in the forest when she was about three or four months old. This is very unlikely as a mother orangutan would never leave her infant alone and at that young age, Manis would still be constantly clinging to her mother.
He also stated that he tried to release her, but she came back to him. Being so young she would not have been able to survive on her own. Infant orangutans can spend up to eight years with their mothers while they learn all the skills they need to live in the forest.
He took her home with him, where she was fed on a diet of sweet condensed milk rice, fried treats, tofu and occasional fruits.
The name Manis means “sweet” in Indonesian and her personality matches her name. When she first arrived at IAR’s centre she craved human contact and would cry out for attention whenever anyone walked past the baby quarantine building, but she is now settling in well and is getting used to less human contact. She has also adjusted well to her new healthier diet.
Manis is regularly taken to a group of trees close to quarantine where she shows great promise as a good climber, though she gets a bit nervous if her human caretakers are too far away. She is given leafy browse every day and with a bit of prompting she makes them into a nest by patting them down with her hands and feet while turning in circles. This is a very important skill to have as orangutans make a fresh nest to sleep in every night, but it is hard for human caretakers to teach the orangutans how to do this in the trees. They often learn this behaviour from copying one another. We hope she will move onto forest school quickly though, as at over three years old she is already much bigger than all the others currently in baby school!”
