What a fabulous Bank holiday weekend! I had a very relaxed and cultural weekend, spending time with some very special people and meeting friends, old and new.

Oxfordshire Art Weeks opened on Saturday and runs countywide until the 29th of May. I went on a road trip on Friday evening with the lovely George Groves (the amazing portrait artist) and was chauffeured to the private view of another lovely friend – Josie Clouting.

Josie and I go back a long time, with a fond friendship formed during her time working at Emerald and exhibiting her stunning paintings in the gallery over the years.

Now based in Oxfordshire, she is joined by @valentina.gonzalez.artand @yvettephillips_art at the Blewbury Clubhouse for Oxfordshire Artweeks until May 14th for her current exhibition. Displaying an exciting collection of Oil paintings, Josie’s looks at places that make us feel inspired and insignificant all at once. This new collection of works focuses on wild places in the British Isles. 

And WOW, what a show! The new collection is stunning and her two fellow artists also have the most beautiful work to admire and explore…. its a bit of a trek from the Chalfont’s, being near Didcot.. but its a very pretty journey and worth the trip if you have the chance to visit.

About Josie:

Josie immerses herself in the landscape, from man-made cultivated botanic gardens to wild stormy beaches and the rolling hills where she lives. Her paintings are intuitive, emotional responses to the natural environment, inspired by the vastness and wonder of the natural world.
Josie’s works are saturated with colour, vitality and energy, reflecting her response to light, atmosphere and topography. Painting and sketching en plein air is a vital part of her practice, enabling her to react to the landscape and play with loose, immediate brush marks.
Experimenting with acrylics on a variety of surfaces and scales, with many large scale paintings as a result are part of the enjoyment of the creative process. Josie's physical movements creating large expansive works are an expression of the energy she feels within the landscape.

Josie graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Norwich University of the Arts in 2012. Her studio is now based in Cholsey, South Oxfordshire, UK. She is also an associate member of Ayres House Studios in Wallingford. Previous shows include the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020, Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize 2020 and the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2019.

So, this is my friend Josie, doing her amazing thing and ready to welcome you to her art show if you would like to visit.

If you don’t catch her this week, I hope she will come back to Emerald Gallery sometime soon and exhibit her paintings with us once more.

Josie, Valentina and Yvette are open:
Open 6th-14th May
10-5 weekends
10-3 weekdays

The Clubhouse
Blewbury
OX11 9HF
Free parking at venue