New Chair of Portsmouth and Hampshire Art Society wins a prestigious award

Jane Pooley the new chair of the Portsmouth and Hampshire Art Society (PHAS) founded over a hundred years ago in 1909, is “totally gobsmacked” after having had three of her drawings accepted into the prestigious UK Colour Pencil Society exhibition, at the Mall Galleries, London.

Jane said “I have been a member of the UK Colour Pencil Society for 4 years, and this year I entered three drawings, in the vain hope of getting one exhibited, I thought they must have made a mistake, so I asked but no error, they wanted all three!”

It was in lockdown, that Jane found out she could draw, starting out with charcoal in a ‘learn to draw session’, she then played around with pastels and found some old coloured pencils in a cupboard. As she is also involved in dog sports, she started out trying to draw her friends’ pets and found the mindfulness of it quite soothing and soon became quite a coloured pencil addict!  Jane is now the proud owner of over 700 coloured pencils and has drawn over 50 animal portraits, with many being commissions.

Jane came to Portsmouth originally in the early 1980s, as a geography student at the Polytechnic, when she met her future husband, although she left after graduation, the city pulled her back and she returned with her husband in 2023, when he retired.

Jane joined PHAS rather tentatively, some three years ago, as she wasn’t ready to exhibit, but thought it might help her find some friendly arty people.. and it did!

“In the first year of joining, I entered one of my drawings, just for fun and in the second year I won a prize for a coloured pencil drawing of hydrangeas.

I have now started oil painting, which I am loving, plus I attend a local lino print studio to experiment with another media type. I sold one of my lino prints at the exhibition last year too!

I feel like I can now say I am a proper artist and urge everyone to come along to our  Thursday Art Group sessions (term time) where members can enjoy the stimulation of working in the company of other artists.”

 PHAS membership is open to all and it allows you to enter the annual summer exhibition, the highlight of our year, it runs from  22nd to 30th August 2026, and we are privileged to exhibit in the light and spacious setting of the nave of Portsmouth Cathedral.

There is a varied programme of monthly demonstrations by established artists and occasional workshops with visiting tutors. See our Programme of Events Page.

 For more information please check out our website http://portshantsart.org.uk and membership page.