JoJo Mayland Art

Hi im Jojo and welcome to my website.

I live in the beautiful Chiltern Hills with the two men in my life, my baby boy Oliver, and my Chihuahua Oscar (needless to say I mix those two names up constantly…)!!

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Like many who are born to create, I felt an innate passion for art since as young as I can remember. From drawing on our patio with chalks with my sisters as a toddler, to favouring the arty farty children’s programmes like art attack and hartbeat (‘80s children will remember those…). I would get so excited at the wondrous possibilities that a blank canvas offered. It lit my internal fire and I felt compelled to create.

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At around 6 years old, I distinctly remember the enjoyment I derived from drawing cars. It was so pivotal because I had grasped that to represent them properly I had to draw in 3D not 2D. I had to show their back and sides receding depending on the angle I viewed it from. This opened a whole new world of possibility and spurred my passion for practice and perfecting.

Throughout school art remained my favourite subject. It was my hardest and most time consuming subject, mainly because I pressurised myself to meet my own standards of perfection (a story most artists will know). That being the case, I barely noticed the hours rolling by as my soul was so completely at peace while in the zone, and it was so rewarding when myself and others could appreciate the final piece. I often painted with music on, or while chit chatting with the family, and every one of my family sat for me at one point or another, which meant that my practice of art was very much a shared and positive experience for all.

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Realising that it was very difficult to make a living solely through art, I trained as an accountant, hoping that it would give me transferable skills and a more stable future. Throughout my training I barely had the time to pick up a pencil or a paint brush and I felt an aching feeling that something was missing. When I finally got the time to paint (in between work contracts), I felt invigorated once more, it replenished my waning energy, and I actually jumped out of bed each day energised and full of excitement to create something. I have never been a morning person, as much as I would love to be as I love the quiet calm of dawn, I equally love sleep! It became clear that art was the missing piece of the jigsaw of my soul.

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Since then I paint as much as I possibly can, around work commitments, and while caring for my baby boy. I am grateful for the gap as my art now has a maturity that it lacked during earlier years. It has the injection of life experience, and a deeper sense of emotion. I paint much more instinctively, to convey the emotion of a place or an experience as opposed to painting something I was told to paint. I select artists and influences that spark something in my soul, and my work is more personal as a result and is ever growing and changing, afterall we never stop learning and evolving.

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I have a love for colour and mark making that conveys shape, form, expression and movement. My inspiration is to paint what makes me feel something, and that primarily means landscapes. To convey the sensual, the feel of the wind whipping up the sea and sand, or rustling through the leaves making a forest sing. The crunch of the leaves beneath our feet, the sight and feel of the sunlight bathing the forest floor, and the way it dances across different surfaces and conveys different moods at different times of the day. I also paint portraits of those who are indulging something they feel passionate about, such as dancing or playing music. Im a dancer myself so I can inject that emotion of being on stage into those paintings.

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I don’t know how my work will evolve over time, and the not knowing is exciting. I am happy to be on the journey of creating, and even happier to invite others on that journey with me, to feel the world through the intimate shared experience of my portrayal and your interpretation.

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Please feel free to take a look around and please come and say hello, I always love to chit chat. If you have any questions or would like to ask about a commission of a special place or portrait, or would like to purchase one of the originals or prints on the following pages, please just shout.

Have a lovely day.