Jo Fraser was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and grew up within a large family belonging to medical and scientific professions. Early in her childhood, she developed a very strong and meaningful fascination for the visual arts and began to dedicate her time to the practice of craft, draughtsmanship and to writing and illustrating books.

She spent most of her early years and teens in a traditional home in Edinburgh, attending George Watson’s College, where she obsessively strived for artistic excellence, took regular life drawing classes and developed a substantiated knowledge for anatomy and traditional techniques in portraying the human figure. In 2004, She left School to pursue further training at Scotland’s renowned Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.

In 2008, having already exhibited throughout the UK, she graduated with a first class honours Degree, and many awards in painting and drawing. Of her degree show, critics noted her blend of strong draughtsmanship, loose paintwork and atmospheric tension that resulted in an academic but gritty take on the traditional ethos of portraiture and suggested her as one of the emerging young artists to watch.

Following the success of her degree show, Jo became resident artist for a castle in Angus and produced portraits of the family’s children. She continued to work extensively and exclusively on large portraits for private collections and stately homes in Scotland, and in 2010, her experiences and influences, which range from nineteenth century interiors to British subcultural movements of the 60’s - 90’s, the draughtsmanship of The Old Masters, contemporary painters Larry Rivers and Stephen Conroy, the female body in graphic art and visual manifestations of the psyche eventually let her settle into a style distinctly her own.

"I drew because without drawing I had no identity. As a young person, I experienced both privilege and extremely troubling times and, though I’ve never been the sort of artist who seeks solace in producing work as an experiential commentary, It was always there. It was always just who I was and I never questioned that. I definitely had to turn the prospect of becoming "a painter" over in my head for a good few years, but I put that down to the vocational orientation of my family. Nobody really knew how it was done, but looking back, I think I liked that." - Jo Fraser

Towards the end of 2010, Jo began work on a new series of oil paintings, putting emphasis on the characters behind the portraits. “I know the way I create work is important. There is a method, a sort of curious and consistent hybrid between drawing and painting that I work through regardless of the subject matter. But now the subject matter is feeling more poignant.” - Jo Fraser

Jo Fraser is currently Artist in Residence at The Edinburgh Academy in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland.  After winning The BP Portrait Travel Award 2011, The National Portrait Gallery funded Jo's residence in Peru, where she lived with an indigenous family of Quechua weavers in the small, mountainous village of Patacancha.  She returned from Peru in November 2011 and is now working on a large group portrait of the weavers.  These works and diaries will be exhibited as part of The BP Portrait Award exhibition 2012.

press, publications + appearances

Tuesday, 14th February 2012

The Inspiration to Write Essays

I'm writing some essays for a couple publications here on the leather bucket couch under some hopeful cranked up dimmer spots.  Somehow I feel like the brighter thery are, the more likely I am to want to write.  Previous BP Travel Award essays are strewn open around me too, like,…