Jane was born in South Molton, Devon, and studied at Wimbledon School of Art with John Ward RA and Gerald Cooper, then at London University's Institute of Education. She moved to Cornwall in 1957, exhibiting regularly at the Newlyn Art Gallery and the Penwith Society of Artists Gallery, St Ives, where she served on the Executive Committee with Barbara HEPWORTH, Terry FROST and Bernard LEACH.

In 1966 she moved to Bristol, and then London, both painting and teaching art at various schools. She was head of art at Redmaids School, Bristol, and from 1986 to 1995 taught in the illustration department at Falmouth College of Art. Subsequently, though keeping a studio in Penzance, she returned to Bristol and travelled extensively abroad.

Working in both mixed media and collage, much of Jane's work is based on the human figure, often as placed in a specific landscape; other works are partly or entirely abstract.

Jane Furness died on 7 September 2020.