Artist and printmaker Jo Westgate is 'Walking with Wilfrid' through an exhibition of original artworks, commissioned for this year's Corbridge Chamber Music Festival to celebrate the 1350th anniversary of the founding of St Andrew's church in Corbridge by St Wilfrid. Known for her atmospheric black and white northern landscapes, Jo Westgate works from her studio situated to the north of Corbridge, near Hadrian's Wall. She produces hand-printed woodcuts and drypoints using an 1836 Albion Press and a 1960 Littlejohn etching press.
It was for her love of wild landscapes that Jo returned to her childhood roots in Northumberland, from London where she gained an MA in Fine Art Printmaking at Chelsea School of Art in 1988. Since then, Jo has built a reputation for her evocative use of line and tone, in images which are based on acute observation. She has exhibited widely and has taught in schools and colleges across the North of England. Jo has a strong affinity to the region through its history and ecology, and the spiritual legacy of St Wilfrid adds another layer of interest to the work in this exhibition, and to the Festival.
What do you consider to be the greatest inspiration in your work?
…Landscape. I love wild places, but also being able to observe the layers of influence which people cause in those places through the ages, which make layers of marks which are still visible today. For example on Hadrian’s Wall you can see where Romans made their defensive ditch and vallum, underneath fields of grazing sheep or harvested hay, making an over-laying pattern of spots and stripes.
Who has influenced you, and what or who continues to inspire you?
I have had some wonderful teachers, who continue to inspire me. My Hexham High School teachers Mike and Margot still keep an eye on me! My Foundation tutor from Manchester, Don McKinlay set a discipline and pace of working, always asking “What did you do last night?” (and the answer was not to be “went out....”!) Tony Ratcliffe taught the absolutely essential solid techniques of Printmaking, and a love of mountains. On degree in Sheffield it was Stan Jones who first suggested that it was transient lighting on landscape which I could concentrate on. On post-grad in Chelsea, Richard Beer taught me selection of detail from within the distracting multitude of options. He was so cheerful and happy and had a phrase “Oh, how JOLLY!”, said with such straightforward enthusiasm, it was a marvellous antidote to the ‘artistic angst’ of many other teachers!
By what process do you begin a new work? Does this change depending on the brief?
I always work from observation, sitting in front of the subject and drawing. Different subject matter dictates my choice of medium. If something is interesting because of bold shapes, then woodcut best translates this. If linear detail is the interest, then pencil works best, or tonal then it has to be drypoint. I find it essential not to force a subject into the wrong method of expression.
If you hadn’t been an artist, what would you have done?
I only really have the capacity to be an artist, and have known this since as long ago as I can recall. So, if I was to have been anything else, it would be fictional. So I would choose to be a cat, in the home of a kind and indulgent artist, living in the country, with a nice garden. I could then sit patiently in the shade under her seat while she was drawing, or sit on top of her sketchbook when she was working in her studio, to stop her drawing when it was time to relax!
Your desert island tool?
If I were stranded on a desert island, I could manage to make charcoal with which to draw. Great would be my relief if a crate of sketchbooks could be washed up, dry and clean, with beautiful paper inside!