Joanna Wilkinson

I studied Fine Art at Liverpool Art school from 1999-2001 achieving a first class degree in painting.

Colour is my thing. The power of a mark on a canvas and the places these marks can take you is my fix.

On viewing Monet's cinematic waterlily paintings in Paris I gained the confidence to paint on a large scale and this continues to motivate me. A large canvas can envelope the viewer into an extraordinary dimension of energy and feeling.

My paintings come from nature and experiences on this earth but they celebrate them in a space that is not recognisable. I am an abstract painter, painting in response to today. Painting is not dead, there is still so much to say.

Travel and nature inspire me as well as the sensations that can be created by two or more colours next to each other. The painter Mark Rothko once memorably described his abstract paintings as facades- 'tragedy, ecstasy, doom and although my work is generally celebratory of life, it too is about creating the sublime.

My British artistic influences include Gillian Ayres, Barbara Rae, John Hoyland and notably Albert Irvin. Albert was very influential to me during me degree and his expressive use of colour and marks create paintings in multiple planes, t...

I will be showing at The Other Art Fair in London Kings Cross from 30 June to 3 July. i would love to see you there.