About the Artist

Joy Foulds grew up in Whitby, a small fishing town on the North East Coast of the UK. As a child, she spent hours exploring the tide line, collecting sea glass, shells and driftwood smoothed and shaped in the waves. Her creativity emerged early—sketching wild flowers, customising clothes, and later painting murals.  She moved to York to study Art and Design, followed by Community Arts in Manchester.  She developed a passion for photography, drawn to neglected buildings, urban decay, and the quiet ways nature reclaims the landscape.

Joy’s work is rooted in an obsession with layers, both in the world around her and in people. She explores surfaces that reveal history—walls, billboards, or forgotten spaces—and considers the layers that shape human experience: memory, personality, culture, and emotion. Some layers protect, some are imposed, some are chosen; some are permanent and  others shift over time. Through mixed media—painting, drawing, photography, and digital journaling—she creates textured, layered work that invites viewers to reflect on the visible and hidden elements that make us who we are.

Joy currently works between sketchbooks, found materials, and large canvases, building work slowly through layers of different media.  Her studio practice allows space for collecting, noticing, and revisiting ideas over time, often combining hand-drawn marks with photography and retro pattern’s.  She continues to develop new bodies of work that reflect her interest in excavation, embellishment and feminine beauty, with future plans focused on expanding her mixed-media practice and exhibiting work that encourages curiosity, recognition, and emotional connection.