Hello, my name is Jo and I was born and bred in the Orkney Islands, just off the north coast of Scotland. After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010 with a BA Honours in Painting, I returned home, to Orkney, to continue working.
My studio is based within the family business at the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery in South Ronaldsay, Orkney which I run alongside my brother, Andrew. Our Mum, artist Leila Thomson, established the gallery in 1996 as a way to continue her artwork whilst raising her family. Leila graduated with a BA Honours in Tapestry from Edinburgh College of Art in 1980 and like myself knew she wanted to return home to work. She sadly passed away in 2022.
My studio is based within the family business at the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery in South Ronaldsay, Orkney which I run alongside my brother, Andrew. Our Mum, artist Leila Thomson, established the gallery in 1996 as a way to continue her artwork whilst raising her family. Leila graduated with a BA Honours in Tapestry from Edinburgh College of Art in 1980 and like myself knew she wanted to return home to work. She sadly passed away in 2022.
Tapestry weaving is second nature to me as I was brought up with it. However it's only in the last few years that I've returned to the medium and fully incorporated it within my artistic practice. Handwoven tapestry combines my love of drawing with colour
and texture in a way that's different to painting yet painterly
qualities can still be achieved within it. I am still a painter, often using yarns instead of paints to create my artworks.
The main focus of my practice is the character of Orkney's landscape. Recurring themes in my work are rhythm, time, movement, surface, light and a sense of open space.
My research always starts with walking, soaking in the feeling of the landscape and the weather of that particular day. Quite often I return to the same place multiple times before I even start creating any drawings from it. Using a combination of memory, on site sketches and photography I create finished works in my studio. Drawing is at the heart of my practice and the medium I choose to work in (whether it is oils, chalk pastel, ink or handwoven tapestry) depends on the idea or feeling I want to capture.
My research always starts with walking, soaking in the feeling of the landscape and the weather of that particular day. Quite often I return to the same place multiple times before I even start creating any drawings from it. Using a combination of memory, on site sketches and photography I create finished works in my studio. Drawing is at the heart of my practice and the medium I choose to work in (whether it is oils, chalk pastel, ink or handwoven tapestry) depends on the idea or feeling I want to capture.
Although the main body of my work is expressive, representational landscape,
I also have another body of work which is more abstracted and layered. I often explored themes within the landscape which investigate the
identity and character of a place in relation to time, such as mapping tidal lines on a shore over a season and weathered surfaces on shoreline rocks.
" j k thomson - orkney artist" was created in March 2013 as an online sketchbook; a place to document ideas, work in progress and finished artworks.
