Top of Peak

Jane Appleby is an expressive and intuitive painter who paints with the vigour of her love of life, inspired by the Canadian Landscape, often painting outdoors in the tradition of the Canadian Group of Seven – “En Plein Air.” The works of Van Gogh, Mondrian, Kandinsky and Rothko have been influential to Jane. She recalls being especially moved by viewing original works in museums by these artists as well as those of contemporary Canadian artists including Emily Carr, Takao Tanabe, Jack Shadbolt and Gordon Smith, all of whom had an impact on Jane, leading her to take up painting at a more serious level. Her late architect father also nurtured her process, and her younger brother, Frank Pochyly, also paints. Jane was born in Cheb, Czech Republic in 1964, and her family immigrated to Vancouver in 1969, as sponsored refugees. At a young age, she learned to appreciate the outdoors with her family, who valued the new found freedom of the west coast