About me
J R Oatts
I'm J R Oatts, aka Jo, a British abstract painter. My vibrant, textured and expressive work centres around the theme of ‘colour in motion’.
My work has been exhibited in London and across the UK, and I have collectors internationally. You'll also find me at Manchester Art Fair in November.
Based in Bollington, on the edge of the Peak District in the north of England, I grew up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. I've spent many years living and working in London, and a short time in Kent, and for a time had a studio next to the Turner Contemporary in Margate.
As well as being a artist, I've worked as a journalist, filmmaker, radio presenter and advertising creative director.
So while creativity and the creative industries have always been my passion, painting is my first love.
My practice
Colour in Motion
Through my paintings, I explore how colour and movement touch every facet of our existence.
I work with multiple layers of paint and sweeping gestural marks, creating a tapestry of colour, texture and movement.
We're all made of many layers – and my own life has been somewhat of a tapestry of different experiences – so working this way this feels very natural to me.
If my work evokes joy, inspires dance, even invites consumption ('Is it wrong that I want to eat it?' is a common response to my work) – or just reminds us that we are alive, then I'm happy.
My inspiration
Influences
Artists I have always looked to for inspiration include Kandinsky, Georgia O'Keeffe, Turner and Cezanne, and more recently Mad C, Faye Bridgwater and Chloe Lamb.
Colour was always around growing up. My grandmother Daisy was a skilled dressmaker and flower arranger, and her home was always overflowing with fascinating colours and textures. This also inspired a love of Hollywood glamour and fashion illustration, and the work of Bob Mackie and Antonio Lopez.
These early influences, along with revelry in cabaret, music, performance, club and LGBTQ+ culture in my teens and 20s, have given me an appreciation for all that is flamboyant, expressive and colourful.
