Jo Ruth
11th - 13th May
£490
Take Flight
Building a Personal Visual Language Through Nature-Inspired Motifs
Join us for three creative and exploratory days of printmaking, stencilling and image-making, designed to help you build your own personal imagery. Whether you are an experienced artist looking for fresh inspiration or a complete beginner keen to experiment, this course offers a supportive environment in which to play, discover and develop your ideas.
Using gel plate monoprinting, stencils, masks, collage, texture and colour, you will explore a wide range of techniques for generating imagery and building visual connections. Starting with a theme or motif of your choice, you’ll explore ways of evolving ideas through experimentation, creating layers of imagery and discovering unexpected relationships between shapes, textures and patterns.
Through demonstrations, guided exercises and plenty of one-to-one support, you'll learn to balance the spontaneity of gel plate printing with a more considered approach to building your own visual language. Working in multiples will help you recognise recurring themes and successful imagery, allowing ideas to evolve naturally.
On the final day, you will curate your prints and experiments into a concertina sketchbook. This may become a finished piece in its own right or serve as a valuable source of ideas and inspiration for future work.
No previous experience of printmaking or stencilling is necessary, just bring an open mind, a willingness to experiment, and be prepared to enjoy the creative journey. Materials will be supplied by Jo.
Lunches and refreshments included.
Days run from 10am to 4pm (ish)
About Jo
Inspired by the natural world, Jo's work explores the textures, patterns, colours and changing atmospheres of the landscape. Walks through urban and rural landscapes provide the starting point for her work. Observations made on location are supported by sketches and notes and later developed in the studio into images that evoke a sense of place rather than describe it.
Birds are a recurring motif in Jo's work. Whether heard before they are seen, glimpsed in the undergrowth or silhouetted against the sky, they punctuate her experience of the landscape. These fleeting encounters inspire compositions that weave together observation, memory and imagination.
Jo graduated from the University of Reading with a degree in Fine Art. During her career teaching art in colleges, she became increasingly interested in broadening her technical knowledge to support a diverse curriculum. This led her to pursue further study in printmaking through specialist courses and workshops. What began as professional development soon became a lifelong fascination with printmaking. Today, as a painter and printmaker, she combines gestural drawing, translucent layers of paint, collaged monoprinted papers and a range of printmaking techniques, working freely across media to suit the needs of each image.
Jo has exhibited throughout the UK, including a solo exhibition at the Scottish Society of Ornithologists in Aberlady and appearances at Birdfair in Rutland. Now based in York, she is a member of York Printmakers and a regular participant in York Open Studios. In 2025 she completed a two-week artist residency at Brisons Veor in Cornwall, where she explored ideas and techniques that she looks forward to sharing on this course. Her workshops encourage participants to experiment with confidence, using observation, playful exploration of materials and printmaking processes to develop their own visual language.
