“I spent my first week exploring the area on foot and by car taking photographs and making sketches.  My work recently has been concerned with landscape and the changes made on it by human habitation over the years, so the area surrounding Joya: AiR seemed ideal, with man made terraces and almond groves alongside rocky mountains and wild rosemary. However I found the vast scale of this environment somewhat overwhelming and I retreated into the studio for my second week and began to make studies on a smaller scale/ making drawings from pieces of bark, rubbings of patterns in wood and stones and small found objects representative of the area.

After settling down, especially with the wood stove lit and warming the room, I found I began to formulate a clearer picture of how I might incorporate some of the elements of my stay into my printmaking and now I'm at home, in the cold, wind and rain, I realise I now have a wealth of resource gained from my stay to draw upon”.

Josie McMorrin

McMorrin attended Edinburgh College of Art graduating in Drawing and Painting in 1975. She taught art at secondary school level and continued to exhibit work, mainly though the Society of Scottish Artists. In 1998 she moved to Dublin, taught Art in Marino College and through them was involved in a local Arts Festival exhibiting a solo show with them in 2014. She joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2017 and since then she has been developing her work through printmaking.

 
Exhibitions:
Impressions Biennial, Galway Arts Festival, the Graphic Studio summer and winter shows, hot press 20/20 print exchange, miniprint International Cadaques, Lessedra World Art Miniprint Sophia, Royal Ulster Academy Belfast, the New State Dublin, May Day communal print and in Greenacres Gallery Wexford.