Q&A with Jo Perkins

How long have you been a practising landscape artist?

I was always creative and attended Art School. I went on to study Japanese and moved there to live and work. My husband had an offer of work in Edinburgh, and we moved here over ten years ago. When I reached my forties, I found myself with a paintbrush in my hand as part of an Instagram new year challenge and I haven't looked back.

How does your environment impact the abstract work you create?

Nature and the natural world are integral to my creative process. I grew up on a farm in stunning Constable Country in the Dedham Vale. I adore spending time in the countryside and in gardens and have been further inspired by my recent move from central Edinburgh to rural Kinross-shire.

Your work employs the use of such vibrant colour, is this an important part of the process?

Colour makes me happy. The nuance, variation, expression, and delicacy that can be found in colour. The impact it has on mood and feelings and how each of us reacts differently to different colours is fascinating to me. I spend time matching colours to better understand how natural colours are made up. Colour is essential as I use my paintings to express both the look of the landscape and how it makes me feel.

Can you tell us a little more about your composition work and how these feed into your larger landscape paintings?

Scotland is beautiful. I feel very lucky to have all this beauty around me as it offers limitless inspiration. Compositionally the world is your oyster, but I tend to be drawn to leading lines within the landscape. This may be a river, a path, a flower border, or a row of trees.I am primarily a studio artist, meaning I work a lot from photos I take of places I visit. When out and about I use my sketchbook to make quick thumbnail sketches, which I back up with both photos and small videos. A 5x5cm thumbnail sketch is used whether I am painting 30x30cm or 100x120cm. I often use ink to transcribe my small sketches as it can be looser and more expressive than other materials.

Out with Scotland, are there any other countries/landscapes that inspire your work?

I am inspired by every place I visit and have naturally been shaped by my early experiences living in East Anglia. However, my most prevalent inspiration other than the Scottish countryside that surrounds me would be Japan. I have several colour books from Japan that influence much of my colour practice and I enjoy the combination of the Japanese aesthetic with my local landscape.

What drew you to work with Strathberry on this exhibition?

I was hugely honoured and excited to be contacted by Strathberry for this exhibition. I feel Scotland is home now and am aware of the huge wealth of artistic talent to be found here. The creative community is huge, diverse, and talented. I loved the idea of a collaboration which can help shine a spotlight on this wonderful world of art.

How did the brand inspire ‘Pathways” and this vibrant collection of work?

Nature changes and evolves the whole time, while the actual landscape remains the same which fascinates me. Strathberry seems to follow the same rules, innovating and changing whilst remaining classic and enduring. I was hugely inspired by both the colours and textures I found in the collection at Strathberry, and these have driven my colour choices. Used as the core of the palette, I then found inspiration from my recent trip to Japan and found colours and pattern that complimented them. Creating a vibrant palette with which to express the landscape even down to glimpses of gold to represent the bar closures unique to the brand.