PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
1975: Seoul, Korea, Art Gallery, Chosun Hotel.
1977: Hong Kong, Kenneth Ko Studio.
1979: Hong Kong, Art Room Gallery.
1985: Tokyo, Japan, “Fantasy on Paper”, Genkan Gallery, Tokyo American Club.
1993: Hong Kong, “Fantasy More Fantasy”, Mandarin Oriental Fine Arts Gallery.
1994: Hong Kong, American Town Club Art Gallery.
1999: Perugia, Italy, “In Umbria. A Journey of Colour Returning from the Orient.”, Santa Giuliana, Military Language School Cloisters.
2003: Rome, Italy, “Living In Colour”, Art Hotel, Via Margutta.
2005: Hong Kong, “Animal Miniatures”, Sandra Walters Consultancy Gallery.
2006: Rome, Italy, “Horoscopes and Teapots”, Green Tea, Pantheon.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1977: Hong Kong, “Art, The Visual Experience”, Pearl City Art Exhibition.
1978: Hong Kong, “Miniatures”, Petra Hintethur Studio.
1978: Hong Kong, “Exhibition for the Society for the Protection of Children”, City Hall.
1979: Hong Kong, “China Coast Community Exhibition”, City Hall.
1992: Hong Kong, “Animals”, Mandarin Oriental Fine Arts Gallery.
1995: Hong Kong, “Marvelous Miniatures”, Mandarin Oriental Fine Arts Gallery.
2003: Massachusettes, USA, “Miniatures”, Maureen Carven Artisan’s Studio.

BIOGRAPHY

A wartime baby, born in 1940, Jean developed her imagination and love of colour in her family’s typical English country garden, where her father grew prize-winning roses and dahlias. Growing up in the old seaside naval city of Portsmouth, her ambitions led her to study at the Portsmouth College of Art after completing Secondary school. Architecture was her first choice but condsidered a career exclusively for men, and book illustration and theater desgin were thought as non-productive occupations. The best alternative was a Diploma Course – D.P.D. – Display, Publicity and Design, which encompassed colour theory, fabric design, photography, typography, calligraphy and commercial design, together with the window display stragey which took into account the psychological impact of colour display and shapes on the public.
Jean went to Italy at 19 and stayed for 15 months. She experienced living In a different culture and then met Ugo Tori, who was to become her husband. “Just being in Italy, surrounded by incredible art forms, each doorway opened into another magical garden - gave me a different perception and another jolt to my imagination,” said Jean, “however, I realized I should get my feet back onto solid ground and the discipline of work and study. I returned to England and worked at window display during the day and taught Colour Theory at the College Night School.” The rest of the time was spent sketching, sailing and living. Every spare penny was saved to pay for the constant return trips to Italy to visit Ugo. They were eventually married in an Italian village church in 1964. After establishing a home in Milan, Jean continued sketching. With her well developed sense of colour, it was inevitable that she turn to more painting. The sale of one of her first paintings and the encouragement of her friends motivated Jean to work towards a higher output and further sales.
1971 brought radical changes – Ugo Tori was transferred to Korea by his company. For the first time, Jean came face to face with Asia and was intrigued with the humour, style and colour of Korean Folk Art, which still plays a large part in the approach to her work. Another Korean skill has made a lasting impression on Jean Tori’s work – “ I discovered the textures of Korean handmade paper, which I still use for most of my paintings. On a research trip into the countryside I met a paper maker, with whom I established an intersting rapport and drew on his unending knowledge of his craft. I learned to make Korean screens, but took my acquired skill one step further. Instead of painting on paper and then applying the results onto the screen, I built up layers of paper on the screen, until the layers became as strong as canvas. I then painted directly onto the screen. This was to the delighted approval of the paper master, who said my ‘paper canvas’ would last a thousand years!”
Jean never strayed far from her love of architectural design and Korea offered a totally new concept in Form and Line, Korean temples being the most outstanding example. The result of this fascination was her first one-woman show in Seoul in 1975. She has since traveled extensively thoughout Asia, absorbing it’s influences and collecting visions.
The Toris made the move to Hong Kong in 1976. The first exhibition Jean staged in Hong Kong was due to the good-humoured encouragement of a leading Hong Kong architect, Kenneth Ko who told her to get working again. After the success of her one-woman show, Jean particiapted in various group exhibitions.
Jean’s personal exhibitions in Tokyo in 1985 and in Hong Kong in 1993 were greeted with much enthusiasm. Contemporaneously she worked on commissions and designed cards for Christmas for charity sales.
In 1996, before the ‘Hong Kong Changeover’, Jean Tori returned to Italy, to live in Umbria where she continued to paint, often on handmade paper panels prepared in her art studio. Many of Jean’s paintings are still very detailed compostions, but there has been a shift towards minimalist works with just five or six colours and miniatures with fluid images. The minimalist miniatures have also begun to change dimension into giant displays of colour and style. Jean Tori still includes Asian symbolism and design in her paintings, but she has also been greatly stimulated by her Italian surroundings – the Umbrian landscapes which continually change during the arc of a day and throughout the seasons. But always, in Umbria, Jean Tori continues to paint colour.
In 1991 Jean has her first exhibition in Italy in the medieval cloister of Santa Giuliana in Perugia, which is part of the Italian Military International Language School. Her mix of art, inspired by Asia and Umbria is a great success and since then both these cultural experiences continue to influence her paintings. Through her multicultural themes and intensity of colour and shape, Jean Tori transmits to her audience her imaginative and humorous vision of the world, living in colour.
Jean still lives and paints in Umbria where she also rents houses in her hamlet for those who wish to have a holiday in the beautiful and magical landscape of the Upper Tiber Valley: www.caiporrihomeinumbria.com