Jo Dunn, a Chapel Allerton – based artist, chats with us about her work, inspirations, and inviting people into her home to view her paintings.
Jo Dunn is a Chapel Allerton-based artist and animator who specialises drawings and paintings capturing the area. Her artistic endeavours started from a young age with encouragement from her mother: “I started right from when I was a little kid. My mum wanted to be an artist actually, but her parents didn’t think that was a suitable vocation. I remember when I was little, my mum put out some newspaper, a plain piece of paper in front of me, and a jam jar full of water and a brush. She had her little watercolour paint set from when she was a kid, which she gave to me.”
Though she originally grew up in Liverpool, Jo came to Leeds to study Fine Art once she had left school: “When I got older and came to leave school, I wanted to go to art college and my parents said: ‘Yeah, go ahead!’ So I did! I trained in fine art in the early to mid-80s. That’s why I’m in Leeds actually. I did a foundation course in Liverpool where I grew up. I knew I liked painting, so I applied to Leeds Polytechnic, as it was then, to come here and do a Fine Art degree.”
Our city made quite an impression, and Jo has stuck around ever since: “I quite liked it in Leeds so I didn’t go back home. The people are so friendly. Everybody says that Liverpool is a friendly city and Scousers are dead friendly, but actually I thought it was a tough place to grow up. My brother is in Yorkshire now as well and he says the same. He thinks Yorkshire people are just very kind and friendly.”
Her paintings and drawings often take inspiration from her surroundings: “I’ve always painted what I see in front of me. I like drawing as well as painting, and I do house portraits.
I like drawing the shops, I’ve done a lot of paintings of local scenes, including one of the willow tree on the roundabout in Chapel A. In terms of making a living, one thing that I have found is that the customers really like it when they can recognise the place that is in the picture.”
Jo’s style as an artist has developed over time, moving away from abstract into more realistic expression, and she takes inspiration from a variety of different artists: “I do really like abstract art. I like the pattern that the paint makes on the paper. If that’s accidental, that can sort of add to it in a way you could never invent yourself. When I was a teenager I got into cubism in a big way. George Braque is the artist that I most liked when I was deciding I wanted to be an artist. I like Paul Klee as well. When I came to Leeds one of my art teachers showed me the work of Georgia O’Keefe, who was an American landscape painter. She was quite an inspiration to me, and she had an interesting life. She went to live in the desert in New Mexico. She shunned society a bit, she was a bit of a loner. In some ways, maybe you have tobeabitofalonertobeanartist.”
As well having made at appearance at Chapel Allerton Arts festival, Jo also recently took part in the Chapel Allerton Artists Trail, which saw her welcome guests into her home to view her work: “Chapel Allerton Artists is a group which was set up a few years ago. It’s rewarding to meet other artists and talk with them. I found out there were artists living around the corner from me and I didn’t know! There was a guy called Richard who decided to set up this art trail. It was backbreaking, I had to get my house all nice and tidy and cut my grass. Fortunately it didn’t rain, so I could put my pictures out in the garden as well as in the house. The people who came were people who were really interested already, so it was really great for me. When you’re on your own you don’t talk to yourself about your work, but discussing it with other people makes me think things I didn’t realise were in there until I talked about it.”