Artist Statement

Neglected and deserted places, industrial buildings, open fields and moors. These are not scenes that are well known for their beauty.

Josie’s landscapes make a subtle impact by using familiar, ordinary scenes, plain open spaces, motionless water and subjects with a sombre feel to them. They use the power of suggestion so that an ordinary, familiar subject becomes beautiful in its subtlety.

Her paintings examine the way human interference affects our natural landscape and in turn, nature starts to affect these manmade settings. There is an ongoing contradiction of natural and unnatural, from overgrown wasteland containing derelict buildings, to untouched hills alongside neatly divided farmland. New work has focussed on manmade patterns in natural settings, depicting symmetrical plantations.

Titled with place names that for some, evoke familiarity and sentimental value, Josie’s paintings betray the reality of the British landscape.