WELCOME to Artlinks, the new (this is number 3) regular Reconnect feature designed to spread the word, and images, for local artists. If you would like to tell your story, please get in touch with Martin Foster by email (martinfoster4242@ gmail.com) or text/phone (07837 003962). It’s not always easy to write about yourself, or your art practice, but Martin is happy to help. And if you run a gallery or other exhibition space, let us know. Again, contact Martin…
OUR featured artist this time is Josie Gould, a contemporary landscape painter based in Abbotskerswell, Near Newton Abbot. You can see more of Josie’s work at www.josiegould.com and at the actual, in-the-real-world-with-real-peopleand- everything exhibitions listed at the end.
SO how does a Devon girl, who grew up on a dairy farm in East Devon, find herself on an adventure as a curious, contemporary landscape painter?
Josie’s early career took here through various parts of the world, including Bermuda, North America, Canada, Croatia, Turkey, and a range of occupations, from yacht chef and scuba diver to documentary photographer. She eventually returned to Devon in 2000 to care for her parents who were seriously ill and she continued to care for her disabled mum for nearly 20 years. But she was also able to continue the creative adventure during that time, and completed a BA (Hons) and then MA in Fine Art at Plymouth University.
“During that time, I still continued exploring photography and video,” says Josie. “My final project and MA Fine Arts exhibition was a video installation about the farm I grew up in on the edge of Broadclyst in East Devon. Sadly, the farm has now been redeveloped into the new town Cranbrook, with 8000 new houses, and the lovely listed, thatched farmhouse was a victim of arson. At the time I was exploring loss and the feeling of not knowing what was happening.”
But what came out of that project really surprised her.
“Nature, the farm, the animals and the land kept showing me how one thing in the world can effect another, rather like the butterfly effect, without any immediately obvious link. And the beautiful, ephemeral qualities that I was experiencing reminded me of what I was so sad to be losing. By the end of the project, although still sad about those losses, I also felt very grateful for the childhood experiences I had with my family on the farm. And eventually I saw all those much needed 8,000 new homes come into being and some of the occupants of the new town also embrace what I had loved about the history, the people and the stories of the land. Life changes and evolves.”
After the MA, Josie decided to concentrate on painting, which she had continued alongside her studies. But how to translate her processes using video into paint?
“In a Vipassana meditation practice, some years earlier, I’d had an experience of being immersed in an all-encompassing joy; like being inside an explosion of particles in a beautiful dance – no thoughts, simply experiencing what is occurring as it unfolds. It was totally joyous.
“Eventually I took that meditation practise into my painting process, which unsurprisingly also combined with my having fallen in love with painting outdoors. And as I approach my midsixties, adventure and curiosity are still what call me out to explore every day with a sense of enthusiasm and excitement.
“The qualities that enthralled me on a sailing trip – the ephemeral changes of light, colour, mood and atmosphere – are the same that move me now. Whether I am in my home studio or roaming over the coast, river or Moor, I am looking for opportunities to catch moments that take my attention and affect me.”
Pictures (left to right): ‘Across the crystal sea’ oil on canvas. ‘Dappled Devon lane – summer’ oil on board. ‘Salcombe sunrise’ oil on canvas, ‘Sea sparkle’ oil on canvas. ‘Dimpsy Dart’ oil on canvas. ‘Turquoise seas’, oil on canvas.
When Josie’s practice changed from photography to painting she was reading a book by Byron Katie called ‘A thousand names for joy’, a name which “really resonated” with her, and her solo exhibitions have been called ‘A Thousand names for joy’, featuring contemporary landscapes and seascape paintings with a special focus on the light – as she often did when sailing across oceans.
Her paintings of the sea and the coastline include some of her favourite local places, like Hope Cove and Lees Foot beach in the South Hams, and she returns every year to Sennen Cove, Polzeath, and the North Cornwall coast generally.
“There’s such a wonderful combination of beautiful light, drama and atmosphere, which acts like a magnet for us artists,” explains Josie. “Dartmoor, which I love, also calls me to it, although I sometimes find it scary, as I occasionally did the farm as a child and of course the ocean too. During lockdown, of course, I’ve also stayed close to home and painted the lanes in my home village of Abbotskerswell – the light is so beautiful coming through the trees along the lanes. It’s very evocative for me of a simple, quiet, peaceful but very alive joy.”
Lockdown, the constant news streams, the restrictions, and the deaths has been another scary time, for Josie, as it has for many of us. But she was already preparing for an exhibition so she stuck with painting “almost like a meditation process”.
“I was already teaching myself new ways to paint using oil paints and I couldn’t paint outside so had to find new ways to work. I dug out photographs, most of which were, unsurprisingly, of the sea, coast and rivers and filled with light and colour.
“By the end of lockdown, the paintings and my process, like the farm, had taught me a lot. I noticed that something paradoxical happens when you’re painting into the light. You really actually need the darkest darks to reveal the strongest contrast and the brightest light, or in other words perhaps, to reveal the greatest joy. Also the less dramatic colours, the greys and the seemingly duller colours have their own subtle beauty and can act as foils for the gems of colour. They make them glow. I found that a whole range of feelings and intensities can reveal different qualities of joy.
“Again, I experienced a very real mix of the sadness of lockdown, combined with huge gratitude for everything else; relationships, community, generosity, compassion, people doing their best. Truly bitter-sweet. The darkness that breaks your heart open I again found can reveal beauty and kindness so that even the tiniest thing can be moving and bring joy. In the simplest way, for me, that means yes there must be at least a thousand ways to experience joy every day.
“So, for now I’m keeping on painting and being open to all the mysterious ways in which joy can show up around me.”
For further information and to see more of Josie’s work, visit www.josiegould.com.
Forthcoming exhibitions
July 31-August 7, 10am05pm
Creative Collaborations: Contemporary landscapes by Josie Gould and
Jane Ellis. Birdwood House Gallery, 48 High Street, Totnes.
May 28-September 11, 11am-5pm
Salcombe Art Club – group exhibition,
The Loft Studio, Victoria Quay, Salcombe.
September 5-11, 11am-5pm
Salcombe ‘This week’ – solo exhibition space
The Loft Studio, Victoria Quay, Salcombe
For large paintings, Josie is represented by: Annie Bowie at The Bowie
Gallery, 54B Totnes High St, Totnes. Call 01803 863054.