Jo Allsopp set up Sable Studio Gallery in the grounds of Moira Furnace Museum. From her gallery space she sells her watercolour paintings, mosaics, cards, jewellery and giftware. Her spacious studio enables her to teach regular painting and drawing classes plus weekend workshops in a variety of media. She also does illustration work. Jo is an active member of the SAA. Her live workshops are extremely popular. Jo also regularly features in the SAA’s magazine Paint & Create. She lives near Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire.
Jo's style of painting is completely unique and throughout the book she shares her experience and enthusiasm for the subject. I completely lost myself in the pages, learnt loads and if you know Jo then you can hear her voice coming through the text to help you with your next animal project. You are going to love Jo's approach and the way she puts paint to paper, it's very refreshing and does exactly what it says on the cover. -- Alison C. Board, Author of 'A Beginner's Guide to Watercolour' Artist and tutor, Jo Allsopp is passionate about painting wildlife. In her loose and contemporary style, she shows beginners how to tackle the often difficult job of capturing animals in paint using innovative and dynamic techniques. A section on exploring inspiration and motivation is followed by short, practical exercises to help you loosen up. Close-ups of Jo's painting techniques, with a specific emphasis on drawing, will encourage you to have a go yourself. There are three pure watercolour projects and nine projects incorporating mixed media -- each of them provides well illustrated step-by-step examples to help you develop your own style. -- The Leisure Painter * Issue 646 * The projects are fantastic and jam packed with techniques and underlying principles of painting. Starting with pure watercolour, Jo introduces new concepts and extra mediums in an extremely friendly and accessible way. As a fairly “traditional” watercolour painter myself, I felt inspired to push my comfort zones by introducing other mediums. Jo’s practical advice on how to do this made it feel fun and achievable, immediately giving me much more confidence to try something new! What really made the book sing out to me were all the extra insights: injecting life into black and white animals, learning how to rescue overworking, and what to do with so called “failed” paintings. It’s these extra morsels of info that can really help take our painting to the next level. Ultimately this book will leave you excited and inspired to paint and get creative. What more could we ask for than that!? -- Tom Shepherd, Watercolour Artist This is a beautiful book full of stunning paintings by Jo Allsopp the author. It is perfect for anyone looking to learn and develop their skills in watercolour, inks and mixed media painting. The book is called ‘Loose & Lively’ because it encourages the learner to express a freedom in their drawing and painting. This book is brilliant as it talks you through, step-by-step, about what equipment is needed and shows an overview in stages of how to achieve such pictures. I would highly recommend this beautiful book and give it a five star rating. -- Jackie Fisher * Customer Review * I am thoroughly enjoying my journey with this book and the author. Her techniques are simple but so effective. My aim has always been to “loosen my style” and these instructions are allowing me to feel more comfortable in my ability to do this. Especially loving the squirrel. -- Mrs A E Parsons * Customer Review *