Jo Starkey

I am originally from Nottingham, where I spent a happy childhood growing up in a country village on the outskirts of Nottingham. From an early age, I had a keen interest in the arts...

And I spent my secondary school years training to be a dancer, earning a place at a stage school in Surrey where I became a boarder. However, my career as a dancer was not meant to be, as my love for painting became my number one passion. I decided to hang up my ballet shoes when I was 16 and focus on my journey to become an artist. After completing art college in Nottingham, I then moved to London, where I began to forge my career as an artist.

Although I went to art college, I am mainly self-taught and have learnt my skills as an artist by experimenting with different materials and harnessing new techniques, which have evolved. I try and depict the essence of nature and its magic in my paintings, which are created using mixed media on silk, which is mounted on board.

I use the silk as a canvas and build up layers using lots of different materials, which give it a three-dimensional effect. This layering process lends itself to the scenery that I paint, creating a feeling of depth and texture.

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