A Solo Exhibition by Jo Sheppard

Jo Sheppard has been inspired by rural Charnwood for some years, and like many others, took great comfort from spending restorative time walking outdoors during the pandemic.
Working outside and from her studios in Hoton and Cropston, she has produced over 70 new pieces for the show and now invites you to view the local landscape as she sees it: a riot of colour, texture and light which emanate through her paintings, drawings and prints – reflecting Charnwood’s charm.

Her inspiration has been taken from various locations, many from within the Charnwood Forest area such as Bradgate, Swithland, and the Outwoods.

Jo comments:

“We’re so lucky where we live, right in the middle of such beautiful countryside – to me, a little artist’s paradise. I love nothing more than taking my daily walk with my dog, taking photos, sketching and getting inspired. I find woodland walking particularly relaxing and it always sets me up for the day.

My hope for the show is to recreate my passion for the locality. Having grown up in a very flat rural Lincolnshire I have really grown to love the soft gentle hills, rocky outcrops, abundance of woodland and thoughtfully maintained landscape this area has to offer.”

It’s not all rural however, there will also be a few familiar urban and semi-rural scenes on view, such as the Sock Man, Carillon, Mountsorrel Butter Market and a flooded Stafford Orchard in Quorn, to name but a few.

The work on show will be varied, from a large oil paintings to experimental encaustic work, fine art printmaking, drawings and a less well-known technique called ‘gouache resist’.