From GP to artist
After a lifetime in medicine, Jane Mackay decided to pick up her paintbrushes and fulfil her dream of being a full-time artist
Where Jane Mackay’s life was once filled with stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors and medical journals, nowadays you’ll most often find her snuggled away in her attic studio surrounded by giant easels, palettes of paint and a scattering of brightly coloured brushes. A GP in a busy London surgery for more than 20 years, and an overseas doctor for many years before that, it was the turning of the millennium that persuaded Jane to throw her stethoscope aside and embark on a new chapter of life in her 50s. Today, 17 years on, she says it was the best decision of her life. “I loved art from childhood and actually can’t remember a time when I wasn’t painting,” says Jane. “In fact, I clearly remember aged six, winning a beautiful, shiny pink paintbox after entering a painting competition with a magazine called Nursery World and that was the first time I realised my art could achieve something. “But in those days, in the early Sixties, being an artist as a career wasn’t even on the agenda. You became either a secretary, a nurse or did social work and a lucky few might do things like medicine. I knew I would never stop painting, but I never thought of it as a career. Instead, I studied to be a doctor.” While at university, the sense of wanting to paint never left Jane as she squeezed in organising
exhibitions and even an art festival around studying. Even after she qualified and went to teach medicine in Papua New Guinea she continued her love of art. Years later, working as a partner at a GP surgery, she realised medicine wasn’t giving her the fulfilment it once did, especially as new changes to the NHS started coming in. She decided it was time for a change. “My parents had died very young and me and my siblings thought we’d never live beyond 40 so I’ve always had this attitude that you have to get on with what you want to do in life and not wait to do it later. And at the millennium, as all those nines turned to noughts, I thought this is the time to leave medicine and pursue my dream of being a professional artist. So on New Year’s day 2000, with a group of friends, I threw my stethoscope into the Thames. It really did feel like I was turning an enormous new page in a book.” From there, Jane relished the chance to throw herself into her artwork, creating a little studio at home and organising exhibitions. Then in 2014, she decided she wanted to set herself a real challenge and take a fine art degree, enrolling on her Masters at the Wimbledon College of Art at the age of 67. “My degree gave me so much,” says Jane. “Although I actually found it more difficult than a medical degree! Medicine involves a huge amount of learning but this was intellectually challenging. We did a lot of discussing our own work and other people’s work – it was really mind-stretching.” Since then, Jane has exhibited her work around the UK as well as taking commissions from major design companies. While she loves to create all sorts of things, her real passion is putting music into painting. “I have something called synaesthesia which is a crossing of the senses. All babies are born with it but most people lose it later. With me this means when
‘I’ve always had this attitude that you have to get on with what you want to do in life and not wait to do it later’
I hear music I also see colours and shapes and even textures. So if I hear a certain word or hear a particular chord I can visualise it and then put that into a painting. If I listen to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus it couldn’t possibly be a green colour, while Vaughan Williams’ music has always been a blue or turquoise colour. It also works with pain, so when I recently had sciatica that was definitely a deep purple colour.” Now specialising in paintings inspired by the music of Benjamin Britten, Jane couldn’t be happier with her new life. “I feel so invigorated and contented being a full-time artist. It’s incredibly satisfying. I think anyone can pick up a paintbrush and learn to do art at any age. But sitting people in front of a jar of flowers and saying ‘paint’ it isn’t always productive. I like to say go back to how you felt when you were four years old and you didn’t care if you didn’t know how to paint. You just stuck your fingers in the paint and did it. It’s about finding what inspires you, getting hold of some decent art tools to do it and getting your creative juices going.”
If you’d like to find out more about Jane’s work visit www.soundingart.com