About

Joanne Kitson is a professional artist specialising in equestrian art and animal portraiture. Joanne’s passion for equine subjects goes back to her childhood where she spent as much time as she could at her local stables, riding and tending to the ponies. This teamed with a keen interest in art from a young age meant that horses quickly became her main inspiration. After receiving her first commission at the age of fifteen Joanne progressed to build a large body of work and through word of mouth began to sell her work in local art exhibitions as well as receiving more commissions to paint animal portraits.

Joanne is often credited for the amount of anatomical detail she includes in her work. This developed as a result of having access to her own horse from which she made various studies. “I finally got my own horse at the age of 17, a rescue case named Shadow, a beautiful bay Anglo Arab gelding. Shadow became my companion and muse over the next couple of years, and it was also during this time that I started to take the study of anatomy seriously, and would often spend hours sitting in Shadow’s field observing and sketching him and his field mates from life, analysing equine conformation, colour and movement”.

Although no longer a horse owner, Joanne is a keen rider to this day and finds her regular and close contact with horses is essential to her art. Joanne now maintains a practice based on observations from life and her own photographic source material. By making sketches from life she has developed an uncanny ability to capture the individual personality and characteristics of her subjects. This ability has thrilled clients and collectors alike and her work now hangs in private collections in the UK, USA and Canada. Joanne enjoys an enviable international reputation in her field of animal portraiture.

Joanne lives on the edge of the countryside in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. She lives with her husband Richard Kitson, a notable figurative artist and musician; and their rescued house rabbit Dolly.

Customer Reviews

I cannot recommend Joanne’s work enough. She did a drawing of my Husbands Staffy “Jasper “ as a surprise, we were blown away with the result. Although Jasper has passed she was still able to capture his true character from photographs and descriptions given to her. I also have a large Horse painting and Joanne did a friends Jack Russell for a special birthday. Her paintings and drawings come to life. Fabulous. - L. Townsend, West Yorkshire.

I cant recommend Joanne enough! I have had two of her portraits, one as a gift to me and one as a gift for my dad. She captured the cheeky character of my dog perfectly, I really don’t know how she does it!! It's such a perfect gift for anyone with a well loved pet! - E. Sharp, West Yorkshire.

Some friends had a pencil drawing done of one of my pet rabbits. Joanne managed to capture not just how she looked but her spirit too. - A. Dakin, South Yorkshire.

Had a beautiful commission painted by Joanne of my mare that takes pride of place in my lounge. It really captured her character. Cannot recommend her highly enough. - T. Pugh, Nuneaton.

I absolutely love Jo’s artwork! I know first hand the love & hard work that goes into her designs. I own many cards (which I frame, keep & gift) and I’m also very lucky to own a bespoke pet portrait. Thank you Jo xx - J. Gough, South Yorkshire.