Jo Maynard primarily uses pencil to create wonderfully realistic pet portraits, but also enjoys drawing and painting wildlife, children, cars and landscapes. She loves experimenting with different mediums, including oil painting, alcohol ink painting, block printing and drawing with pastel pencils, and was recently invited to write an article for the Jackson’s Art supplies blog on the different pencils she uses.
Last year Jo sold several artworks at Sketch for Survival, a charity auction that raises awareness about wildlife conservation. This year she has been invited to create a piece that will join the core collection for this year’s Sketch for Survival exhibition. Jo has also had six artworks selected in the past four consecutive years for the Wildlife Artist of the Year award, organised by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, raising over £1,000 for the charity.
Her work was recently spotted on Instagram by underwater photographer Philip Hamilton. He invited her to create a painting to feature in his book ‘Call of the Blue’. Together they selected a painting of him diving with a hammerhead shark, and this will feature in this exhibition.
Jo loves working with clients to produce portraits that are a true representation of the character of their pet (or other family member) that they can treasure forever, and she will be available throughout the exhibition to take photos for anyone who would like a portrait.
About Jo:
Jo was home-schooled between the ages of five and ten, and she believes this gave her the freedom to express her creativity (as well as dedicating more time to drawing than she would have done at school.) It also enabled her to spend more time with her pets whilst exploring the wildlife in her garden and the Sussex countryside, igniting her deep respect and love for animals.
Retired from her career as an Olympic fencer, Jo currently runs a fencing club and coaches athletes, but over the past five years has been devoting an ever-growing amount of her time to producing bespoke pieces of art for clients worldwide.
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