New Paintings!

It has been quite a while since I have posted and a lot of things have been happening! I am studying in an MFA program now that allows me to make work in my home studio as well as at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown twice yearly. This past fall, I was able to spend a month painting in a wonderful studio there with a great group of MFA candidates.

May at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center

I am in my second month-long residency at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. I arrived in the rain on Tuesday night and set up my studio along with 20 other MFA students in the MassArts Low-Residency program. I spent the last two days in studio reviews and critiques and saw some amzing work and wonderful transformations in artist's work since the Fall residency. Just wanted to take a minute to post some photoes here of the work center, our crits and some of my new paintings.

BP Oil Spill Prompts New Art

From the very first day that the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, I have felt completely sick to my stomach. Before I even saw the heartbreaking images of the brown pelicans struggling in the thick muck I was completely heartbroken and furious that this could happen. Then when day two and three and four and five of oil spewing into the Gulf continued, I couldn't believe the news. I couldn't even comprehend the fact that they couldn't control the problem within a few days.

87 days later, BP finally "stopped" the gushing and I had already begun making a series of new paintings in response to my horror at the situation.

It can be extremely complicated to put all of the emotions and anger that I have into a piece of art so I had to brew on it for quite a while. I decided to approach it in the simplest way possible for me. I am in the process of creating an installation of 87 paintings depicting the many animals, fish, birds, crabs and other species that are suffering at the hands of BP. These are still in progress and a few images are shown here. You can see more on my website at joancoxart.com

New Figurative work and portraits

I am working on a series of portraits in acrylic. Some of these are still in progress, but I thought I'd share and request any feedback anyone has for me. I am struggling to keep the fresh quick gestural applications of paint while still capturing the essence of the figure and the emotions just under the surface of each one. I am finding myself getting caught up in painting tight details. Looking forward to the warmer weather coming so I can make faster progress on these and some new works. The cold winter months are slowing down my painting in the garage.

Lots of Photos from Austria posted on Facebook

Due to several technical difficulties and lack of wifi here in the mountains of Austria, I have found it easiest to post photos to Facebook directly from my phone. I have made my photo album on Facebook viewable to all...even if you don't have a Facebook account.

Please go to this link to see photos with captions from the first week of my trip so far!

24 hours in Vienna

After a rather easy flight from the U.S through Munich and in to Vienna, I pushed and pulled all of my luggage into a very small but quaint room at Pension Pertschy in Vienna just a block from the Hofberg Palace. After a short one hour nap and some fussing with my iphone and internet signals and electric converters that wouldn't work, I finally stumbled out in the sunny streets feeling tired and exhilarated at the same time.

There were horse drawn carriages clopping by every few minutes and beautiful sculptures and architecture looming overhead in every direction. I followed a very simple path straight to the MuseumsQuartier Wien and bought my ticket for entrance into all three very contemporary looking museums located together on a big plaza with outdoor cafes and enormous modern plastic seating structures.

The Leopold Museum was having an exhibit of Egon Schiele's paintings and drawings. I hadn't realized that he was Austrian and also that he had died at only 28 yrs old with the flu. He made quite a few paintings in his short time that are very expressive and personal. I have a new found love for his work and was very inspired by his freedom on the page. There were other great works in this museum including a Klimt and other expressionistic works. The Cy Twombly exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK) was sadly less inspiring.

Savannah, Georgia: Fried Chicken, Iced Tea and Paintings

Fountain in Forsyth Park...just one of 21 beautiful parks in downtown Savannah

Scooters in Savannah...inspiration for a new painting

We took a brief vacation in Savannah, Georgia over the fourth of July where the moss hangs thick from the live oak trees and where the fried chicken is as good as it gets. Since it is the middle of summer, all the art students from SCAD seemed to be scattered out of town. Most of the art I readily found was tourist junk. I did, finally, stumble across one painter whose work was hanging in a nice home decor shop called One Fish, Two Fish...while we waited for an hour for the best fried chicken outside of Mrs. Wilkes on the humid street corner.

Knowing Home by Wendy Lea Martin

The artist, Wendy Lea Martin, paints on panel with a wonderful mix of abstraction and imagism. The painting I loved best was a horse with a bird, titled "Knowing Home". You can see more of her work on her blog.

Fourth of July celebrations

Neighborhood in Historic District