The Studio

Who's involved

Fine Artist

Jo Nash

Jo uses her painting practice to highlight and record the loss, change and destruction of landscapes. She uses aerial landscape photography as a source medium. Traces left by humans in landscapes especially industrial processes, wars and occupation, are recorded through aerial photography, often hiding awful truths of irreversible destruction on landscapes. 

 Her practice links concepts such as trace, loss, duration and trauma to current political problems across the globe, adopting an outward looking conceptual framework. The ever-changing impact of humanity on the landscapes and on the future of Earth is a key focus. The work discusses environmentally disturbed, altered or destroyed landscapes from an aesthetic perspective, utilizing the panoptic aerial view.  The ability to look down on the world is still a relatively modern phenomenon. Jo’s work gives the audience an ability to step away from the connections to place and image, giving space to reflect about their impact on geolocations.

 By painting, the methodology allows the creation of layers; vital for the understanding of the painted surface. This becomes a metaphor for the ever-changing landscape, and in turn speaks of the duration of time and our presence in the landscape. The gestural act of painting encompassing themes such as mark making, scribbling, pouring and re working the painted surface. Each of these techniques fit with themes of trace but also more importantly sedimentation processes that can be seen in landscapes. The work is produced on the floor, the artists puts herself in the same position and perspective as the camera used to create the aerial photograph.

 Jo teaches painting classes alongside exhibiting and selling her own paintings. She shares her techniques and other paintings skills to allow the general public to engage with the themes behind her work but also art itself. She is also looking to create an artist studio hub that she can work from but also build a base for other creative working within the east midlands. She hopes to provide a place to build and buy handmade canvases, professional painting mediums and rent studio space.