Raised in Ballarat, Jo is now based in Surrey Hills. Reitze majored in painting at Melbourne State College under A.W. Harding. In 1979 she received six graduate credits from The Paris American Academy (Ecole des Beaux Arts). Formerly Art Coordinator at Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College, Jo is a Fellow of Victorian Artists Society and Past President of Melbourne Society of Women Painters & Sculptors. Reitze runs occasional gouache workshops and has judged numerous art shows.
In 2005 she established Jo Reitze Paints your Garden, immortalizing many gardens including some in Greater Geelong. Jo has been Artist in Residence at Cloudehill, completing twenty paintings there. She was also filmed painting in gouache in this magnificent hillside garden in Olinda, for Put Colour in your Life. Last year her exhibition LON SURROUNDS was the culmination of her residency at Lon Retreat & Spa, Point Lonsdale. All works were inspired by this location and included paintings and drawings of the ancient Moonahs as well as paintings in gouache or oils of Lon’s beautiful garden. It followed her joint exhibition, SURROUNDS at The Hive, Ocean Grove where her series of joyous large oils painted in her garden in Surrey Hills were juxtaposed with Alexandra Lewisohn’s delicate interiors.
Throughout her life Jo has also painted at Ocean Grove, initially in school holidays but now more regularly. While it is the colour of gardens that have excited her, it is the movement in the coastal landscapes and seascapes that entice. In 2009 she was selected to present SEA AIR at Geelong Gallery in Shell Region Artist Program. This featured works of three Ocean Grove locations; the Barwon River, the River flats and her first paintings of the Windswept Trees at Ocean Grove Beach. All works were painted on location capturing the diverse moods. RESILIENCE was built on this foundation.
Jo’s over forty awards include both Best Oil, Geelong Art Show and The Borough of Queenscliffe Art Award last year and the prestigious A.M.E. Bale Prize for Works on Paper, 2022. She was also shortlisted in the highly selective Geelong Contemporary Art Prize in 2021. Reitze’s work is represented in Civic Collections in Victoria and Private Collections in Australia and overseas.