Jackie Norman was born in London into two wider families on both sides and as a child, she learned to draw primarily from life and from colour/trace books.  Even at that early age, she was fascinated by perspective and portraits and she remembers getting her first watercolour box at the age of 9 as a prize from the school in London. Moving to Slough in 1966 with her immediate family there was a fresh start.   After receiving secondary school education she trained at college, then worked before doing more retraining.  Also, she was greatly inspired by the Impressionists and especially Toulouse Lautrec.  Originally she had a commercial background working in offices but that changed later in life. 

She was always painting/drawing as a hobbyist and took classes in the evenings to increase her skills.  She travelled to Jersey and eventually, Israel, which changed her life as it was then she became a Christian, which was a turning point.  In the 1980’s she retrained at Art School at Berkshire College of Art and Design.  where she learned a lot about illustration, drawing techniques, painting, calligraphy, printing, illustration and typography, she worked in design offices and as an in-house designer.  However, at that time, she had to take other work due to the recession.

In 1990 while temping at the local college, she met and married her husband Dave, a fellow artist and have two grown-up children.  Both joined Slough Art Society networking with other artists and exhibited at various places.  As well as this she studied web design – learning Dreamweaver II, Frontpage and Flash.  While the children grew up, she worked in St Mary’s School for 18 years supporting children with their learning, especially SEN children on a 1-1 basis.  During those years I she designed display boards, and backdrops for plays, productions, stage make-up and plays and she was greatly used in art lessons, helping children draw.  In addition, she studied NVQ in supporting teachers plus accredited training.

www.jackienorman.com

MY LAMPOST
My inspiration for my Lampost came from looking at the different cultures, backgrounds and uniqueness of the people around the Slough area. I painted the various colours like a network, where everyone is connected in some way. I have used bright green, red, orange, blue and yellow because they represent the various cultures around Slough and the diversity of different children and adults who have come from different countries, faiths, cultures, nationalities and faiths, all as one voice reaching out to each other. All are unique in some way – different jobs, different smiles and different personalities but all are equal. In some way, it seems almost childlike and I have used some plants featured around the faces and some element of design as, although Slough is quite urban, it has various parks around the Slough area.