Josie is a 19 year old artist from Sydney. She left school at the end of 2013 to begin a Certificate in Basic Vocational Skills through TAFE NSW and take part in other courses through a local community college.
Looking to fill up some extra hours, Josie also enrolled in a mainstream painting and drawing class at a local regional art gallery. She was hesitant about taking on this class as she hadn’t been very interested in painting or drawing in the past. When her tutor gave her a photo of a landscape to draw, she created a very good reproduction. Josie’s untapped talent was uncovered much to everyone’s surprise and delight!
She very quickly progressed, working with oils as her chosen medium, and now paints several works every month. Each piece takes Josie some 6-9 hours to complete. In the last 12 months she has also branched out into large abstract works using a medium of epoxy resin and powdered pigments.
In 2015 Josie was one of 26 international artists with Down syndrome selected to exhibit their work with the UK based Heart and Sold Collective. The first and only Australian artist in this collective, her works have now been exhibited in London, New York and the Salford Museum in Manchester UK.
Josie was a recent recipient of a Variety Club Australia Award for Arts, a grant which helped with part of her ongoing art tuition in 2016. She has exhibited locally for Down Syndrome NSW Show off Festival and recently at Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery in Southern Sydney for International Day of People with Disabilities.
In 2017, Josie will be working towards her own solo exhibition as well as taking commissions/orders for original landscapes from client-provided photo references. You can commission a work from Josie, purchase prints, calendars, t-shirts and other merchandise via her Facebook page.