Dans le cadre de la semaine des langues, les élèves de cinquièmes ont pu rencontrer Jane Courquin, une artiste locale anglaise et Rob Roy, un arbitre international de football en marchant. Après leur avoir posé une multitude de questions, ils ont travaillé sur la rédaction d’un article de presse, en anglais.
Jane Courquin, a professional English painter who lives in France, visited the “Collège de l’Argentor”.
Monday, 18th March 2024, Jane Courquin came to meet Champagne-Mouton Year 8 pupils, for an interview. This artist lives in Verteuil sur Charente. She is a 57 year-old English painter who has lived in France since 2005.
For nearly an hour, Jane in a simple English, easy to understand, answered the questions we had carefully prepared in order to get to know her better : from her favourite soup to painters that inspire her and from her first visit to France to her moving here, we covered a lot of things.
Jane has two brothers : one lives in Japan and the other lives in England. She hasn’t got any children but she loves them. She’s got a stepson, his name is Sam and he’s an artist too. She loves melted camembert with lettuce. She’s a vegetarian. She dreams of travelling more and visiting the Van gogh and Gaugin’s provence and of going back to India.
At the age of 13 Jane went in a French school on a school trip. All the English pupils were shocked to see the french ones drink wine (with water) at the canteen. We assure you that we don’t drink wine at school nowadays !
Jane and her husband, Nicholas hamper, also an artist, decided to move to France when they did their first art exhibition in France. They found a barn to do up in Verteuil and they bought it.
They lived in France in a caravan during the work on their barn. They turned it into an atelier and a house.
She is very modest about how popular she is. Locally, she is wellknown. She painted a bench inspired by Monet, in Ruffec and a wall in Verteuil.
She has done a few exhibitions : in the abbaye in Nanteuil, in England and in Germany. She sells her paintings worldwide on Instagram.
She spoke to us about the difficulties of being an artist but that’s what she wants to do and she has the chance to make a living of it. Everyday, Jane goes to her studio to paint, that’s what makes her happy. When she is not painting, she likes to see her friends, she likes dancing and she enjoys going to the Indian restaurant.
Jane loves France. She likes the French langage that she finds poetic. She was reading in french and she used to speak French with her grand-dad. The french langage makes her happy. At university, she studied French, German and Art. Painting while being in France is the dream ! She loves Verteuil. It’s quiet and she can focus on her painting, she’s not distracted by town life !
Jane will be exhibiting her work at the Chateau in Champagne Mouton during July.
https://www.instagram.com/janecourquinfineart/