THE WEY GALLERY |  Josephine Chisholm

My paintings embody my optimism and my enthusiasm for life – my joie de vivre. I use various media – acrylic, gouache, watercolour, pen & wash, and pastels – to portray: the vibrancy, theatre and personality of urban life the freedom of landscape and seascape the pattern and humanity of allotments and beaches the colour and magic of people and parties the warmth of bars, restaurants, and domestic life including cats  I use an imaginative use of colour and a constructive draughtsmanship to realise my artistic objectives. Amongst artists who influence me are: the Scottish Colourists and their successors, Raoul Dufy, Paul Klee, Paul Cezanne, L.S. Lowry, the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist generally, David Hockney, Mary Fedden, Shirley Trevena, Howard Hodgkinson, Bernard Vogel, and Ken Done. Many places give me inspiration including: Paris, Bordeaux, Provence, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dublin, Edinburgh, London and, of course, my home in Winchester, the Solent, the South Downs and Glyndebourne. I have had exhibitions at: the Winchester Guildhall (2); The Winchester Discovery Centre; the Maltby (now Minster) Gallery, Winchester; the Angelus Gallery at Winchester College; the Salisbury Playhouse (3); Alton; Lewes (2); and Cheltenham. Commissions have included the first publicity illustrations for the Winchester Christmas Market, a painting for Hampshire County Council’s ‘Equality & Diversity’ campaign, personal Christmas cards, a 2 metre long street picture, a beer bottle label for the Hospital of St Cross, and many paintings from secondary sources like photographs. I am now an art tutor. I really enjoy the two classes I take each week at the Tower Art Centre in Winchester. I graduated from the Bristol College of Art and Design as a graphic designer in 1974. Later I took painting courses in Melbourne, Roehampton, Harrogate, West Dean College, and Winchester.