Born in the New Forest, Jo followed her talents through school and on to a degree in fine art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.

Wanting to specialize in sculpture but being advised to apply for painting, she spent her three years ricocheting around subject matters but developing slowly a theme in two dimensions that has continued to thread its way through all her work in every medium.

For several years after college she stayed on in London stubbornly pursuing her work on the flat. She painted commissions, worked as an artist in residence at her old school, King Edward the VIth, Southampton and exhibited in group shows and alone but was dissatisfied, feeling something was missing.

The break that was needed came along in the form of a round the world yacht race. Sailing had been a passion since childhood, so she abandoned the frustrations of painting and drawing and for six years focused on the sport. Traveling around the planet by ocean and air to race, she became a professional yachtswoman, reaching the pinnacle of her career in 2002 by joining the girls team "Amer Sports Too" for the Volvo Round The World Race.

Having achieved that, alongside other records and races, she could now hang up her oilskins with satisfaction and return to Dorset to rekindle her creative aspirations.

The break from art for several years has served not only as an enthusing and refocusing mechanism but has allowed a discovery of artistic identity and direction.

Jo is now building sculptures again in her studio in Dorset, drawing both in air and on paper in order to decipher and divulge the structural movement of her subjects. This constant return to the internal form of things she sees around her has been the emerging theme since her degree. It reveals itself in her drawings, sculptures and paintings, regardless of the subject matter.

Commissions are a large part of her work, if you would like to arrange a studio visit or talk over ideas please call or Email .

07970 382156 / jo@joburchell.com

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