My mother-in-law, Jane Birt, who has died of cancer aged 82, was an Anglo-American artist whose work was shown at the Portico Gallery, Manchester, Leighton House in London, the Piers Feetham Gallery and the Mall Galleries.
She worked in watercolours and oils, and provided illustrations for books including Mr Harty’s Grand Tour (1988), a travelogue by the broadcaster Russell Harty. In 2024, with her longtime friend Peggy van Etten Coats, Jane co-wrote an illustrated memoir, The Oxford Asparagus Society, detailing their journey from the US to the UK in the swinging 1960s.
Jane was born in Washington DC, one of the three children of James Lake, a codebreaker in naval intelligence, who later worked in insurance, and Susan (nee Townsend), a nurse. She grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and after leaving Bethesda Chevy Chase high school, studied art at the Carnegie Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh.
Wanderlust inspired Jane and Peggy to set off from the US to study at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University. Arriving there in 1962, Jane settled into the arts scene, and fell in love with John Birt, an engineering student at St Catherine’s College, whom she married in 1965. He soon became a TV producer, in 1992 director general of the BBC, and in 2000 Lord Birt.
Jane made new friends at every stage of life, and was a generous host at the family’s homes in London and, from the 70s onwards, in rural mid-Wales.
In the 80s she founded a flamboyant social club, the Hat Club, as light relief from the scrutiny of her husband’s work at the BBC – the couple and their friends undertook literary and cultural jaunts around the UK, occasionally venturing abroad.
A diagnosis of breast cancer in the 90s brought decades-long health challenges, which Jane approached with a positive mindset, being determined to remain socially and creatively active.
In Wales Jane got involved in community life, and served as vice-president of the Gwenddwr show and a trustee of Brecknock Wildlife Trust. Her divorce in 2006 forced a re-evaluation of direction; she settled full-time in Crickadarn, returned to her art with new vigour, and took up Welsh trotting, or harness racing. Her loved ones recall her endless joie de vivre.
Her grandchildren remember her flair for festive dinners, Eid-Easter egg hunts in the garden, mounds of golden mac and cheese, snuggling with dachshunds and film noir, and Bollywood re-enactments in her library. Each birthday, family members and friends would receive a quirky hand painted card to mark the occasion: a personal life archive in pictures.
Jane is survived by her son, Yahya, and daughter, Eliza, and five grandchildren, Sulayman, Max, Layla, Bella and Oscar. Her two brothers predeceased her.
