Janna Watson: Something in the Air

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Janna Watson, "The Smell of Rain," nd

mixed media on panel, 60"x48"

There’s something to be said about the simultaneous looseness and order in Janna Watson’s latest paintings. Watson's latest exhibition utilizes paint, pastels and ink to balance shape and colour harmoniously.  Stained panels of loose, gradated paint offer a quiet backdrop for brilliant plumes of colour.  A new lightness emerges within the characteristic abstract marks of Something in the Air.  The distinct half-moon shape of this current body of work appears billowing and free, like clouds separating and reshaping across the sky.  The stark ink lines have graduated from a cross-hatched nets, holding the abstraction within place to become directional lines guiding the viewer's gaze. A dichotomy achieved through playing with differing media within a single composition, Something in the Air activates all of the five bodily senses allowing the viewer to perceive and react to the emotional and rational experiences of the artist.

Janna Watson's compelling abstract compositions use colour, line, and energetic brushstrokes to evoke emotion in the viewer. Her work possesses an elegant and powerful energy, created with a carefully balanced pairing of loose painting and gestural mark-making. Watson's paintstrokes are feeling, sensing, emotive “moments” that wholly refer to this mark-making itself without retreating into the sometimes alienating world of pure abstraction. They are altogether honest and confident, vulnerable and invocative portraits of colour, texture, space, and movement

Watson is a young artist who has quickly made an impression on the contemporary art scene. Her work can be found in several significant collections including the TD Bank Financial Group, CIBC, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the HBC Global Art Collection in New York. Most recently, she was selected to create a magnificent 11 x 31 foot painting for the feature space in AURA, North America’s largest condominium building. The Toronto-based artist has exhibited across Canada and internationally.