Joanna McOwen is a contemporary visual artist who has gained worldwide acclaim for her original, expressive oil and acrylic paintings on canvas. She is inspired by travels, homes and daily wanderings in rural and country Victoria, from the Great Ocean Road and beyond to the Grampians Ranges and Victoria’s High Country, Joanna’s art expression is found through her love of this landscape she calls home. The sweeping grasses and acid yellow canola fields, the rugged hills and the phthalo blue, wild ocean.
An intuitive colourist and skilled painter, she has had her work described by Associate Professor of Visual Arts of James Cook University as ‘taking her breath away’. Sought after by collectors worldwide, Joanna’s success through Australia-wide exhibitions and commercial creative collaborations. Launching a ‘Learn to Paint’ workshop program she inspires the next generation of artists through facilitating group art workshops in studio and in high schools throughout Victoria. A natural and energetic teacher, who enjoys empowering and inspiring both children and adults to develop a love of expressive art, through inspiring and engaging group art workshop days.
Originally from Hampshire in the UK, Joanna comes from a nature-loving creative family of musicians, painters and ceramicists. Growing up in both the UK and outback South Australia, her earliest memories were of red dirt and dazzling skies, instilling a connection to Australian lands that would last a lifetime.
Studying a BA (Hons) in Textile Design at Leeds University (UK) and Interior Design art at the world renowned, Chelsea College of Art, London, she was destined for life as a fabric buyer. However wanderlust led to her working and travelling all over the world, emigrating to Australia in 2004.
Joanna uses soft and bright coastal palettes with a gestural, expressive and
highly intuitive style. Her love of the Australian and French impressionist
movement, along with her own confident use of colour and pattern influenced from her visits to flamboyant cultures, has resulted in her distinctively painterly style.
