Jan Mitchell

Who was Jan Mitchell?

Jan Mitchell was an Australian artist, born in Melbourne, known for her painted bollards and work as a television graphic artist.

She spent her formative childhood years near Healesville before working at RTE in Ireland for 18 years in the graphics department. Her pioneering work in Ireland included designing and creating the country's first pre-school television show carrying the name of its red-haired central character Bosco.

She returned to Australia after 20 years, turned to book illustration, painting, printmaking and created her first bollard art in Barwon Heads as part of an artist-in-schools program. She took the concept of the Baywalk Bollards to Geelong city commissioners in 1994, by 1999 there were over 100 brightly painted bollards depicting notable characters of Geelong's history and culture. Her bollards are also on show at Melbourne and Avalon airports.