Drawing and imagination have always been at the heart of Jo’s work and although her main focus is landscape she often escapes to a land of fantasy and abstraction.
In 1990, encouraged by Berkshire School of Art, Jo was accepted as a member of the Association of Illustrators. The challenge of creating images to clients’ rules led Jo to discover fresh approaches and new subject matter. Painting four deep space images for Associated Aviation Underwriters Inc. required a different approach to composition and colour. The nature of these paintings led Jo to experiment with abstraction related to landscape and still life, and to an invitation to give a solo show at the European Space Agency’s Technical Centre in Noordwijk in the Netherlands.
London exhibition venues include: Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, the Medici Gallery, Gallery 27 in Cork Street, the Menier Gallery in Southwark, the Mall Galleries and the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall.
Jo organised drawing workshops in connection with ‘The Big Draw’, at the Hotbath Gallery, Bath, 2003, 2004, and demonstrated experimental drawing techniques such as ‘Sgraffito with Oil Pastel’ at the ‘Artists’ and Illustrators’ Exhibition’ at the Business Design Centre, Islington. A regular exhibitor in ‘the Gallery’, Norden Farm Centre for the Arts Maidenhead Jo has led series of related workshops held in the gallery space; ‘Rub, Stroke and Scratch’ 2005, ‘The Colour of Ideas’ 2006 and ‘Watching the Landscape
2007’.
