Joanne Last

Joanne was born in Surrey and has lived in and around London all her life. She originally trained as a classical pianist, but coming from a family of artists has followed both disciplines throughout her career. Working intuitively and experimentally – Joanne’s work takes on many forms – abstract, urban, coastal and landscape. The driving force of her work is all in the process – she works fast and freely – layering paint, building texture, finding colour surprises, and creating a rich surface from many iterations to arrive at a place of completion.

“I always start from a blank canvas in my head, as well as physically on the easel. I don’t plan ahead as to what the finished piece might look like. I have to step off the creative edge in order to fall into something that engages me. My best work always comes from a place of risk and experimentation. It’s a dance between fast, intuitive, and often very physical painting and then just looking, so I can analyse what I have done and make some decisions about the next move. The ‘not knowing’ can mean many changes and overpainting and frequent frustration – but equally something magical and unexpected can appear quite suddenly and without warning”.