EXHIBITIONS:
June 2016: Group exhibition at Brugman Gallery, Voorburg, Netherlands
January 2018: Group exhibition at Brick Lane Gallery, London – International Portrait Artists
April-June 2018: Exhibition at Rocca Art Gallery, Florence, Italy
I am Australian born and raised but based in the Netherlands for the last decade.
I am primarily a figurative and portrait painter, working in acrylics and oils for the last 20 years. Painting and drawing has always been my creative outlet for as long as I can remember. My artwork features a realistic but bold style in vibrant colours and also black and whites. As a result of my love of animals I particularly enjoy painting their portraits and bringing them to life on a canvas, however I also love the challenge of a human portrait.
I have studied under different portrait and landscape artists for many years and am inspired by works of some Australian artists with the vibrant colours that are accessible to them, but also the Renaissance artists of Europe that used the chiaroscuro technique for the dramatic effect of contrasting areas of light and dark.
About Jo.
I never take for granted that I have been so fortunate to have been born and grow up in the tropics of the Capricorn Coast in Australia, some of the most naturally beautiful landscape down under. But two of my deepest passions, art and travel, have influenced my life in more ways than I could ever imagine. For me, each has inspired the other and is a constant reminder that there is so much to learn and paint. These days I travel as much as my last euro will take me. The diversity in people, food, culture and landscape; it’ s a never ending supply of subjects.
As a child growing up in the tropics, I was inspired to paint what made me happy. Surrounded by palm trees, hibiscus, birds of paradise, mangoes, avocados; it was and is truly beautiful. As an adult, the people I have met through my travels have also had an influence on what I paint – so I started painting portraits. Portraits then led to pets – my ‘Dutchie’, a west highland terrier living with me in Europe, was the first. So I still paint what makes me happy.
In my travels I always ask people what is their favorite place in the world, and their most memorable experience of that place? I know that is so hard to answer – in my own travels there are so many great places for so many different reasons. From the baklava in Istanbul, shesha over the dead sea in Jordan, vineyards of Cape Town, cuisine of France, coastline of the Amalfi Coast, wines of Israel, tapas of San Sebastian to the seafood of Greece. For me it is the islands of Hawaii. It is a combination of so many things – a place that reminds me of the nature and cultural diversity that I experienced in my youth, but strangely a place I feel ‘ at home’.
These are the things that inspire my art, but I still have so much to paint.