Janine Gallizia is an Australian watercolorist living and working in Europe. She is a very successful artist, with a busy schedule of exhibitions and workshops throughout France, Belgium, and beyond. She is also one of the foremost ambassadors (to use Wayne Roberts' term) in this business, organizing events that feature some of the biggest names in contemporary watercolor painting. I am fortunate to have become friends with her, and am indebtted to her for including me in one of these exhibitions.I gasped when I first saw her work, and she continues to amaze me with her incredibly sensitive and virtuosic handling of the medium. The subject matter ranges from everyday city and cafe scenes, to intimate glimpses of her studio and home, to dream-like visages of Venice - where she captures the atmosphere and mystery like nobody else. I'd post some images here, but I'd have no idea where to start - or end. Go to her website!
Janine's first two books, Lumière & Ambiance en Aquarelle and Rester Simple! are sold out, but her new book and DVD, Spontanéité & émotion…une liberté construite are now available. I have both, and find them absolutely entrancing. (If I ever do a book, this is how I want it to be.) They are written/spoken in French, of which I have a severely limited knowledge, but it doesn't matter - I nonetheless hang on every word, and have spent some time translating text. Most of all, it's the images that matter, and seeing how she wields the brush. I strongly recommend purchasing the book and DVD. If possible, try to get into one of her workshops - I know a few artists who have, and their experience was unforgettable.
So, who loves Janine's work, can't wait to meet and learn from her, thinks she's beautiful, and....speaks a little French???
Moi !
21 comments:
Hi Nick
I have seen Janine's work before, but only on the web. It looks so ethereal and it's perhaps that quality that's hardest to convey over the digital networks and onto our desktop screens. I like the vignetting in many of her compositions. And watercolour, being fluid, is a medium most apt to express this 'seamlessness' of transitions.
Thanks for your kind mentioning of the word "ambassador" as somehow connected with me and for the associated link to my site!
Janine is bilingual. That's a form of 'ambassadorship', in principle. And visual art, like music, is a universal language. Another connecting principle. And here you are featuring her art on your own blog: another connecting principle. IMO, the most elemental principle in art is interconnectedness, in-principle 'hyperlinks'.
Nick, the new blog-header photo above is emphatic, articulate, well-composed. As is all your art.
cheers,
W
wow. yet another Australian watercolorist. amazing. i love the two works you have shown here. ethereal. evocative and using the cool side of the palette with great mastery.
-- Joel.
Wayne - as you know, I feel there are more great painters in/from Australia, per capita, than anywhere I can think of. I'm not sure how Janine ended up in Europe (airplane? heheh), but she's been setting the scene on fire ever since. Always love to read your fascinating posts! (hard to get terribly creative with the blogspot header the way they've set it up with the title/link)
Joel - see above. :) And if anyone knows those cool colors, it's the man from the Dandenongs!
It's impossible for any perceptive and empathetic human not to be affected by the poetic revelations that sensitive painters of light can leave in their passage.
Janine's watercolours are poems of light.
But, as a well known politician once said here;
"Having said that , let me say this":
Australia being a young country had not really developed any artistic identity until the mid C20.
Travelers from Europe brought a topographical record keeping painting tradition with them influenced by the Sublime school popular in England.
At the end of the first 100 years of settlement the Impressionism movement came along and influenced Australian art in a profound way. Tom Roberts for example was a glorious painter, vastly under-rated, a bridge between impressionism and modernism.
Watercolour was the best traveling medium and found it's way to Australia and across the continent with with the 18C explorers. Watercolour has a warming, sentimental relationship with Australians. It reminds us of our heritage and childhood, not only as inidividuals but as a nation. ( a hinderance in many ways)
The European painters found the Aussie light very different from home and many had to return to Europe to understand and "relate" to their own light.
Of course while all this searching and feeling our way along, growing a culture and an identity, affirming our solidarity with our european heritage and trying to prove ourselves was happening there was a 40,000 year history under our noses, making art that still moves the entire world today. It's the latter that makes me proud to be an Australian moreso than the remnants of good ol'e England.
Thank you for the heads up about this brilliant artist, Nick. She is incredible.
Oh I was meaning to say in the last post.
Your latest banner/avatar reminds me of David Carradine in Kung Fu about to take on a bunch of badasses.
nick -
janine has been taking my breath away ever since you first turned me onto her work a while back.
yep, breathtaking - that description nails it nick.
chris!
p.s. kwai chang simmons - heh, heh. you nailed that one too, mr. burge.
Her work is beautiful - thank you so much for posting this and the links to her site!
Hello all! Thank you Nick, what a lovely gest, and boy what a text to try to live up to! Artists that support artists, you know that that is something I respect greatly. Thank you also to all of you who have passed on such nice thoughts. So much going on here at the moment and I am just so glad the barriers are finally falling between the french speaking and European watercolour world and the Aussies/Americans. Tough bridge to build but we're getting there. Counting on you Nick for a lot of brick laying (events)!!!
Dake - that's an apt description: poems of light. And then Janine has a painting that I've not seen on her website, titled "On Deck" that is a mindbender, never seen anything quite like it before. Again, I recommend her new book, it's gorgeous.
I'm very interested in how all of the painting talent evolved in Oz, and we are all the richer for its exportation.
Every once in a while I get the David Carradine remark, and looking again at that pic I have to admit it reminds me of the same thing. Am I no longer a Grasshopper??!
Anonymous - I like that name, I have to concur!
Chris - for once I turned you onto someone!
Angela - nice to meet you, and thanks for posting.
Janine - the pleasure is all mine in being able to inform some people who might not (somehow) already know about you, and to reconvene the established fan base.
Being your friend, and being considered a peer, is an honor for me. I'm really looking forward to meeting you - hopefully sooner rather than later!
Nick(olas) nice to see you have some friends who actually are able to support you in a tangible way. Well the friends with intangible support (kind words and praise) are nice to have too but the ones bearing tangibles are a nice treat. The idea of a self-supporting artist is so unusual these days it points to the real or imagined values of our herd. I applaud your journey to those hallowed artist halls, wherein the inhabitants can afford their own brushes and studios with a northern light source (or at least a 100 watt bulb or 2). Press on - press on!
Bill - I'm pretty sure my studio has a southern exposure, which might account for a lot of prior unexplainables. I talked with Janine today on Skype, direct from her 16th C. stone house in France. Makes this place look pretty sorry....I could handle no exposure there! And maybe like you, I've spent far more time painting with a 100 watt bulb than anything else. Whistler preferred candles and gaslights to the real thing...and who would argue with The Master???
Nick, i may not be the wordsmith some of your other commenters are but you also turned me on to Janine's work. I'd love a copy of her book. it may not be in the cards for awhile, tho. i'll have to be content to just look at her existing work and wonder how the H*ll she does that!
Billie - words don't really matter when it comes to art! I remember a friend of mine who quit one of the art forums out of frustration, because he felt language was inadequate to deal with the it. Maybe he was right. I hope you do get the book and DVD one of these days, they're very inspiring.
Nick, I just got my latest issue of Watercolor magazine and read your 14-page article completely today. Although I had seen many of the paintings before, I was still wowed by the display of all of them together with your comments. Congratulations!!! And BTW, I really like your newest header for the blog - a bit scary, a bit sexy, a bit blue :)
Hey Rhonda, glad to hear you approve of the mag feature - I thought the guy wrote an outstanding article, I couldn't ask for better. I'll be putting a post about it on here soon. Hope you check out Janine's website. (Hey, that's my driver's license photo!)
I was very fortunate to attend Janine’s workshop last summer in France. She shows her command of the subject matter with great expertise, so watching her work on a blank Arches paper was really fascinating. Her watercolours are the result of a conscientious study of her work . They possess a unique visual language about her personal world. Not only is she an excellent artist but also a great person. She doesn’t hesitate to praise her artist friend’s work during her workshop as she did with your paintings, Nick (as I already told you). But I can see you are the same kind of person, You strengthen the bonds of friendship and mutual respect among artists and among those of us who look up to you. Cheers.
it's official - i'm asking santa claus for janine's livre et dvd for christmas. i'm so excited, i can hardly wait till dec 25th!
chris!
(less anonymous than before)
Anna - I'd love to take one of Janine's workshops, so far I have to pretend via DVD. I was fascinated to see how she keeps turning the paper, and what a great idea to put it on that fabric surface! Well, I'll get my chance eventually, I'm sure we're going to meet before long. I hope you'll be there too. Un abrazos!
Chris! - you better hurry, before the elves have to put that one on backorder :)
I have just spent a wonderful day on one of Janines workshops and learnt such a lot from her. She was full of information I had no idea about. It was absolutely fascinating to watch her as she worked. She made it look so easy and yet when I tried it was so hard. It was a wonderful day and I hope I can remember all she taught us and put it into practice.
Marilyn from Cambridgeshire, England
Marilyn- you're very lucky to get to do a workshop with Janine - she rules!! I hope you have her new DVD and book, they are fantastic. Nice to meet you, and thanks for posting.
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