Joanna Whittle

Please describe yourself and your areas of interest.

I am a Sheffield based landscape painter and a member of the Contemporary British Painting Society. In 2019 I was winner of the Contemporary British Painting Prize and winner of the Valeria Sykes Award in 2020. The paintings I create are small scale oil paintings which explore how our presence or absence is reflected in the landscape. They investigate ideas of the ruin through a contradictory depiction of fragile and temporary structures such as tents and fairground facades, which sink into mud or flooded ground. Recent works explore themes of memorial, depicting shrines which explore the rituals of mourning and how these activities accumulate in the landscape. I also work with ceramics creating artefacts and objects from imagined histories. I am strongly committed to research, collaboration and engagement and have conducted numerous solo projects researching collections, archives and sites in the landscape with recent projects including ‘Ghosted Ground’ at the National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield, 2023 (ACE funded); On Shifting Ground’, Whitaker Museum, Lancashire, 2022 and ‘Between Islands’, Harley Gallery, Welbeck Estate, 2020 (ACE funded) Recent group exhibitions include ‘Beyond the Gaze, Reclaiming the Landscape’, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2023; ‘Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now’, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University; ‘Entwined’, Huddersfield Art Gallery; ‘Material Mourning’ in Festival of the Mind, Millenium Gallery, Sheffield, 2022; ‘The Tyranny of Ambition’, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland, 2022; ‘Aggregate’, Freelands Foundation, London, 2022 and ‘Heavy Water’ at Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2021. I am a founding member of the Heavy Water Collective, exhibiting in PostNatures at Graves Gallery, Sheffield, 2023. Education: Central Saint Martins (1997) and Royal College of Art (2000).

Why did you become a Companion of the Guild?

I became a member of the guild as my interests in landscape, heritage and collections aligns strongly with the Guild’s activities. I believe in working with communities to create a feeling of belonging in, and stewardship for, the environment and I have a history of working with communities to nurture and conserve the landscape through sustainable practice and community gardening. Themes of ‘being in the world’ through engagement with the landscape underpin my work as a painter and I would like to bring the exploration of these ideas and my experience of working in the environment to my role as a companion through collaboration with members and communities both locally and internationally.

Web links: www.joannawhittle.com, heavywater.info, www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/beyond_the_gaze__reclaiming_the_landscape, l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2FJoannaWhittle&e=AT2AclQKfVX76E-WOpJOz9c7Mxg2ddbY3AJEbQk7Zb9wf3q6lC4gBlV61rA_rXuGWpmKh88JssfS3_VpB5JNfeF-HjOV2QQruqF2UyJ2MbQUec-jTLLvWg, www.contemporarybritishpainting.com/a-celebration-of-painting