Jo Booth

I have always painted. Following a successful career in Human Resource Management and the arrival of my children I decided to devote myself to my art and have resisted the often strong temptation to return to full time work.

I discovered printmaking when I studied fine art at Hereford College of Art and Design where I obtained a Distinction in my Foundation in June 2006. Printmaking has allowed me to pare down my images to recreate a more fluid representation rather than a literal view. In October 2008 I began studying for an MA in Printmaking at the University of Wales, Newport.

I am especially concerned with landscape. I originally studied Geography at University College London and my art has also always been about expressing the world around me and trying to capture its essence. I am fortunate enough to be based in Monmouth, which nestles among the fantastic scenery of both Monmouthshire and Herefordshire. I also spend time in Cornwall in an old fisherman’s cottage with sea views from all its windows and this proximity to the sea has been a huge influence on my work and, indeed, often the inspiration for it.

More recently, I have been exploring the Pembrokeshire and Gower coastline and the hills above Hay on Wye. I work mostly from my sketches and memory and the resulting work may be an amalgamation of the landscape I have seen or a simplified view. My work may reflect an actual place which the viewer might recognise or it may be a landscape I have created.

Some of my work takes a more abstract form using shapes and imagery to interpret the (often poetic) title of the work. My most recent abstract work has the theme of ‘Protection’. I have produced a small series of six prints concerned with protecting and holding dear that which is important.