Collection: Jo Knight

Dechreuais greu celf yn gynnar yn yr 1980au tra’n astudio mewn coleg celf yn Lerpwl ac yn ddiweddarach yn Ysgol Gelf Manceinion ym Mhrifysgol Fetropolitan Manceinion lle canolbwyntiais ar ffotograffiaeth celf.

Ochr yn ochr â fy ymarfer creadigol treuliais dros 20 mlynedd yn gweithio gyda phobl ddigartref a phobl mewn tai îs-safonol yn y sector elusennol. Wrth astudio ym Manceinion ehangais y themâu hyn i greu ac arddangos harddwch cartrefi pobl, gan adlewyrchu natur haniaethol gwrthrychau bob dydd mewn ardaloedd difreintiedig o dai annigonol.

Dal ein hamgylchedd gan ymgorffori syniadau am gartref, hunaniaeth, pwy ydym ni a sut rydym yn ffitio i mewn i'n hamgylcheddau fu fy ngweledigaeth erioed.

Yn dilyn fy mhrofiad gyda ffotograffiaeth celf creadigol dychwelais at beintio, gan archwilio gweledigaeth fwy haniaethol o liw, ffurf a gwead i fynegi emosiwn goddrychol a syniadau am le, sut rydym yn perthyn a sut rydym yn cael ein ffurfio gan gartref a’n profiad cymdeithasol.

Rwyf wedi cymeryd rhan mewn nifer o brosiectau celf gan gynnwys cynhyrchu delweddau o hostel i fenywod digartref ym Manceinion ar gyfer Cwmni Theatr Open Clasp, a gafodd sylw ar y BBC, set o ffotograffau ar gyfer Take Back Theatre Manceinion a phortreadau ar gyfer cyhoeddiad barddonol.

Mae fy ngwaith wedi cael ei ddangos mewn nifer o arddangosfeydd gan gynnwys yn yr Amgueddfa Ffotograffiaeth Genedlaethol, Ffilm a Theledu, Bradford, Gŵyl Ffotograffau Look, yr ŵyl ffotograffiaeth ryngwladol a gynhaliwyd yn Lerpwl ac yn fwyaf diweddar yn Oriel Water Street, Todmorden, lle cynhyrchais set o paentiadau sy'n adlewyrchu tirwedd ac amgylchoedd fy nghartref newydd yng Ngorllewin Swydd Efrog.

Ysbrydolwyd fy ngwaith presennol gan daith ddiweddar i dref Collioure yn ne Ffrainc.  Yn unol â’m hymarfer creadigol cynhyrchais nifer o beintiadau tirwedd a bywyd llonydd yn dal yr amgylchfyd a’r amgylchedd yr oeddwn ynddo.  Mae’r gwaith hwn yn mynegi’n llwyr harddwch a helaethrwydd lliw a golau sy’n nodweddiadol o’r ardal a’m galluogodd i gynhyrchu gwaith sy’n adlewyrchu fy arfer o ddefnyddio lliw, golau, gwead a ffurf.

Yn dilyn ymlaen o’r corff hwn o waith, mae fy mheintiadau’n parhau i archwilio amgylcheddau gan ddal syniadau haniaethol a mynegiadol yn nhirwedd fy nhref enedigol, Pont Hebden, a’m hymweliadau â Gwlad yr Haf a St Ives, Cernyw.

I began to create art in the early 1980’s when I studied at art college in Liverpool and later at the Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University where I concentrated on art photography.

Alongside my creative practice I spent over 20 years working with homeless & badly housed people within the charity sector. While studying at Manchester I expanded these themes to create and demonstrate the beauty of people’s homes, reflecting the abstract nature of everyday objects in deprived areas of inadequate housing.

My vision has always been to capture our surroundings incorporating ideas of home, identity, who we are and how we fit into our environments. 

Following my experience with creative art photography I returned to painting, exploring a more abstract vision of colour, form and texture to express subjective emotion and ideas of place, how we belong and how we are formed by home and our social experience.

I’ve been involved in several art projects including producing images of a women’s homeless hostel in Manchester for Open Clasp Theatre Company, featured on the BBC, a set of photographs for Take Back Theatre Manchester and portraits for a poetry publication.

My work has been shown in several exhibitions including in the National Museum of Photography Film & Television, Bradford, Look Photo Festival, the international photography festival held in Liverpool & most recently in Water Street Gallery, Todmorden, where I recently produced a set of paintings that reflect the landscape and surroundings of my new home in West Yorkshire.

My current work was inspired by a recent trip to the southern French town of Collioure.  In line with my creative practice, I produced several landscape and still-life paintings capturing the surroundings and environment in which I was based.  This work completely expresses the beauty and abundance of colour and light typical of the region which enabled me to produce work that reflects my practice of using colour, light, texture and form.

Following on from this body of work, my paintings continue to explore environments capturing abstract and expressionist ideas in landscape of my hometown of Hebden Bridge and my visits to Somerset and St Ives, Cornwall.