Jo Aylward

Jo’s love of landscape and the natural world really came to the fore when studying fine art at the University of Leeds, formerly based in the grounds of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Here she connected with the wild landscape of Yorkshire. Her work is devoted to rural themes and the minutiae of the smaller wildlife and flora that populate it. Now living in a small village in rural Kent her garden, planted to attract wildlife, is her main source of inspiration.

Jo’s lifestyle choices directly impact on the work she makes and there is a nostalgic element to both – concentrating on the simple, essential daily things which surround her. Jo hoards small, quiet moments of interest: the sighting of a particular bird or insect, the striking shape in a landscape, or the particular colour of the sky over the churchyard. These turn into ideas for paintings and are stored, sketched and remembered. She combines these observations with her studio collection of vintage objects and natural history books and prints. With her carefully controlled yet glowing palette, Jo’s work follows a well-established British tradition of intimate rural still-lives, but she brings her own deeply considered and refreshing vision to the genre.

Jo has exhibited her work in galleries throughout the UK including the Rowley Gallery, Kensington, the Gold Gallery, Dundas Street, Edinburgh and Charleston House in Sussex and is fast establishing her reputation as an original and highly sensitive artist.
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