ARTIST STATEMENT
Jo Mitchell Long is a contemporary painter whose work explores colour, memory and the emotional pull of landscape and everyday experience.
Working predominantly in acrylic on canvas, her recent landscape paintings are inspired by the British countryside and coastline. Using bold colour, expressive mark-making and layers of paint applied with palette knife and brush, Jo works between representation and abstraction, allowing familiar landscapes to become simplified, distorted and reimagined through colour, texture and gesture.
Rather than faithfully recording a particular view, she is interested in capturing the sensation and memory of being within a landscape — its light, atmosphere, movement and emotional impact. Her recent work has become increasingly intuitive and abstracted, allowing the process of painting itself to influence the final image.
Alongside her landscapes, Jo continues to explore still life through her distinctive tablescapes — exuberant compositions of flowers, fruit, glassware and objects gathered around the table. Across both strands of her practice, colour, composition and expressive mark-making remain central.
Her paintings celebrate the familiar while transforming it into something energetic, immediate and intensely personal.
BIOGRAPHY
Jo Mitchell Long is a contemporary British artist based in Surrey and working from Wimbledon Art Studios, London.
She studied Graphic Design and Media at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, following a Foundation in Art and Design at Chelsea College of Arts. She subsequently worked within design, publishing and the arts before developing her contemporary painting practice.
Her background in graphic design remains evident in her instinctive use of composition, shape and colour, while her paintings have developed an increasingly gestural and expressive quality.
Jo was a finalist in the VAA Art 500 Global Art Awards 2025 and appeared as a Wildcard artist on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Series 10. Her work has been exhibited at galleries and art fairs in London and across the UK, including her 2026 solo exhibition Connection at Hyde Gallery, and her paintings are held in private collections.
