VENUE 5
AdLib Gallery, 10 Church Road SW19 5DL
Jo Rooks
Mixed media
Jo Rooks grew up in Wiltshire and loved all things creative from a very early age. She has always enjoyed studying fine art, visiting exhibitions and experimenting with new materials and techniques.
She studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Bath Spa University College and worked as a freelance illustrator in Switzerland before returning to the UK in 2000 to work as a Graphic Designer for BMG Entertainment (later Sony Music). After her first child was born in 2009 she was inspired to write and illustrate children's picture books. She has since published six picture books with Magination Press of which her debit 'A Box of Butterflies' won a Teacher's Choice award in 2019.
After many years of practicing illustration, her artwork was becoming increasingly digital and she felt a need to move back to a more traditional way of making art which would be free from the constraints of commercial briefs. So she began experimenting with different mediums and setting personal art goals.
In 2022, Jo started a free 'Art for Wellbeing' class at her local Library and has found the process of creating a course and teaching others how to draw and paint very inspiring for her own creative practice. She is very excited about her future where she hopes to work on paintings on a larger scale and continue to teach art in the community.
