Jo Morton

“Born in 1946, I have always drawn and painted, even if life has often done its best to dissuade me!

Heavily censured at grammar school for ‘messy’ drawings, I was not allowed to refine as I strived to capture perceived movement. I was denied Art School training on leaving school.

In my second year at Teacher Training college, however, I was lucky enough to coincide with John Davie taking up a lectureship there. Time devoted to studying Fine Art as my Main was limited to a few hours a week, but as a result of Davie’s extraordinary teaching I began to think in the abstract for the first time. Inspired by Cornish Bronze Age fields in the late 80’s, I had already begun to ‘see’ extraordinary organic shapes in natural forms everywhere - in the cross section of a piece of bamboo, for example, or even the delicate tracery formed by a sheep track, softening the harsh line of a fence,

A concentrated period devoting time to perfecting my brushwork immediately post college has paid dividends over the years.

Gradually I seem to have adopted a flowing, expressive and even calligraphic style. 

Strong influences in forming my style have been Sutherland, Nash, Piper and Eardley."