“So taken aback by the Jo Grundy range of Greetings Cards, I ordered the lot.”
Jo Grundy’s love of nature and English landscapes comes through powerfully in her art and her ability to capture the ever changing seasons lends itself perfectly to greetings cards.
“Because I live by the sea and love my coastal walks these lovely button-finished flowers seem to me like they are looking out to sea (always the most mesmerising thing to do) looking out to the white water of the waves crashing at the shore. You can almost hear the seagulls and smell the sea air,” says Kate Malt, of Love Kate’s.
Like Kate, her customer’s love Jo Grundy’s art-cards too, so we thought it was about time we get to know the artist a little better.
Brought up surrounded by nature and the beautiful English countryside Jo Grundy was born on a West Berkshire farm and, naturally, was inspired by it all.
“Growing up on a farm and in the countryside gave me a lovely childhood with a lot of freedom to roam around all that land, although our farm wasn't massive at around 70 acres. My paintings often contain birds and animals to give that sense of wander lust and freedom.”
For Jo it’s as if the birds represent the freedom she enjoyed as a child. The gift to explore given to her by her parents growing up in the beautiful Berkshire countryside appears somehow to mirror the gift of flight given to the birds.
“I think we have all had dreams about flying at some stage in our lives and it is this desire for freedom and to be a free spirit that inspires my paintings. I often used to see foxes on our land so they tend to pop up in my paintings on a regular basis. I have also always loved the four seasons and remember having a lovely jigsaw of this subject matter when I was a child which I now realise has had an influence on my work.”
An affinity with Mother Nature, her flowers, wildlife, the English coastline and rolling landscape all directly influence the work, but it’s not all raw inspiration, Jo is clearly an accomplished artist and not short of professional technique.
“I often have no thought, or preordained idea of what my paintings will become. In the case of coastal flowers, I experimented with rollers and thick paint which created the sea and this then led me to include a foreground of flowers.”
To create these mixed-media pieces like the one above, Jo has been experimenting with different materials: paper, glue, stitching and beads which together create quite highly textured and ornate pieces.
As a teenager and in her early twenties, Jo spent a lot of time in Cornwall which has also influenced her work. Cornwall’s quaint little cottages, for example, feature in her enchanting paintings. Like this one:
“This little pink cottage and pretty garden full of flowers and daisies is so typical of Jo’s whimsical style and these are frequently featured in her magical and enchanting paintings,” says Kate Malt
Today, Jo Grudy has made a name for herself, not just through her paintings that appear in collections worldwide, but also by the clever way she has transferred her art to greetings cards and selling them successfully online.
We’re really looking forward to what Jo Grundy will come up with next. At Kate’s we love the way she experiments with mixed media and acrylics to create those much loved countryside scenes so wonderfully inspired by the changing English seasons she grew up with. As Jo puts it:
“I observe and absorb the natural world around me which gives me a full glass of inspiration to work from and working in this way means I can continually create different work.”
You can find out more about Jo Grundy and buy her artwork direct here.
Kate's Special Offer: Order any six Jo Grundy Greeting Cards for just £10 including Free delivery, simply pop six or more in your basket and use the code 6JG4£10 in at the checkout.
"