Jo Ashby

Price Range €300-€1,400

Jo Ashby RBSA – Artist Biography

Jo Ashby is a contemporary artist whose work is deeply rooted in her relationship with land, sea, and the transient moments of nature. Her practice is informed by close observation and a commitment to drawing as the foundation of her creative process. Through painting, collage, and mixed media, she explores the interplay of focus and ambiguity, building layers of response to the landscapes she inhabits and observes.

Born in the UK, Jo trained at Bournville School of Art, the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford, and Goldsmiths College, University of London. Jo’s career was co-vocational: working as a professional artist whilst also developing a distinguished thirty-year career in education - working in special and mainstream education, adult art education, and leading art workshops. She returned to full-time painting in 2013. She now divides her time between Sherkin Island and the Sheep’s Head Peninsula in West Cork, Ireland.

Jo’s work has been exhibited widely across the UK and Ireland. Her solo shows include exhibitions at the Midlands Arts Centre (Birmingham), the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Stark Gallery (London), and Blue House Gallery (Schull), among others. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those at the Royal Society of Marine Artists (London), West Cork Arts Centre, Dulwich Picture Gallery (London), and Art Source Dublin.

Her work is held in both public and private collections in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia. Jo has been awarded residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Cill Rialaig, and served as Artist in Residence at the Open Ear Festival on Sherkin Island from 2017 to 2019. She was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 2004 and a full Member in 2019.

Jo’s practice is a process of immersion in place—painting in series, she returns to familiar subjects to uncover new layers of meaning. Her landscapes often exclude human figures, allowing space for quiet, contemplative dialogues with nature. Instead, traces of humanity emerge in the form of stone walls, old buildings, and lanes, often in decay—absorbed once more by the natural world.

Her work has been featured in publications including Artists on the Mizen (2020), Artists of the Wild Atlantic Way (2022), and Ireland’s Islands (2023).

“My work is about my relationship with the land and sea; my responses to being in a particular place. I’m a small speck, finding ways to record transient moments of vastness.”