Heartsong | Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Exhibition by Joanna Wilson

Not many people around here know about Joanna Wilson’s secret life as an international artist. And yet her hideaway studio on Heathfield Road is filled with thousands of art works: floor-to-ceiling abstracted figures that seem to leap from her fingertips and dance across her walls.

A Saatchi Featured Artist and the recipient of numerous awards, Joanna’s work appears in private and public collections throughout the world. But not until now has it received an exhibition space of its own right here in her hometown.

Encountering her work for the first time you will notice a lilting, musical quality to her handling of form, reminiscent of the glens where she grew up. But her compositions incorporate geometric and purely decorative elements too, which seem to reference the urban settings of Edinburgh and London, where she has also lived and worked as an artist.

A full-circle moment for Joanna, this very room is where she met with the Bank Manager to open her business account some 18 years ago. Now with a flourishing business of her own, she has created O P E N S P A C E to share her platform with other contemporary artists searching for a safe space to showcase their own groundbreaking work.

Thoughtful and expressive, modest and exuberant — to know Joanna’s art is to know the artist herself, which is why her work so universally approachable and collectible.