James Cox Gallery at Woodstock Features Watercolor Artist Julianna Cox

Julianna Cox’s small watercolors and oils on paper will be featured in a special exhibit at the James Cox Gallery at Woodstock from August 16 to September 20. Be sure to stop by for the opening on Friday, August 16! But first, let’s learn more about Julianna Cox. No stranger to the Hudson Valley, Julianna and her family moved to Woodstock from Brooklyn, NY, in the summer of 1990. That autumn, Julianna’s father, James Cox, opened his eponymous gallery on Elwyn Lane, eventually relocating his showrooms to the family’s property in nearby Willow, a hamlet of Woodstock, NY. In November 2019, Julianna Cox debuted her miniature paintings in an exhibit titled Small Marvels at the James Cox Gallery. Encouraged by the success of this introduction to her paintings, Cox has pursued subjects that translate well on a small format. Though the artist pursued a professional career in animation, graduating from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in 2003, she has always maintained an interest in fine art. She studied portraiture with Lois Woolley, life drawing with Dean Keller, watercolor with Staats Fastholdt, and landscape painting with her mother, Mary Anna Goetz, all prominent faculty members at the Woodstock School of Art.

James Cox Gallery at Woodstock

Julianna Cox Exhibit Fleeting Moments

Friday, August 16 to Friday, September 20 | 5PM – 8PM

 

The artist’s new exhibit, Fleeting Moments, will again feature miniature works which range in size from 1 1/2″ x 3″ to 5″ x 7″. When asked about the advantages of working on a small format, Cox pointed to “portability.” On a more aesthetic note, she added, “I love holding a miniature world in my hands.”

The artist painted many pieces in the exhibit while traveling by train from Canada to New York. “Portability is definitely a plus here,” she quipped. When asked how she managed to capture so much information while moving swiftly past her subjects, Cox explained that she “generalizes” the scene by making loose line drawings and adding color and compositional notations in the margins. The next step is creating the actual watercolor paintings. The artist explained that she usually works on two or three paintings on each train trip, waiting for the paint to dry and the train to stop long enough to add crisp details. Finishing touches are applied in her studio.

Cox’s’ subjects range from rural locations to cityscapes of New York. Many of her landscapes feature the farmland near her home in Elora, Ontario, which she depicts in all seasons of the year. Cornfields are a particularly intriguing subject for the artist. Whether covered with snow, forming undulating patterns, or spreading beneath a luminous moonlit sky, each of these scenes of the Canadian countryside is a unique jewel. The breathtaking Catskill landscape surrounding the Cox family home in Willow, NY, also provides a rich source of material for the artist. Several pieces in the exhibit were painted along scenic Sickler Road, including an expansive winter view of Mount Tobias.  Other Willow motifs include a cozy cottage illuminated on a cloudy night and the Willow Methodist Church, situated on a hill at the gateway to the small hamlet. During her frequent trips to New York, Cox enjoys painting cityscapes, although she prefers peaceful country settings over the noise and congestion of urban environments. She is quick to point out that she loves the balance achieved by exploring both worlds. The upcoming show will feature New York subjects, including iconic views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the World Trade Center. A more tranquil painting of the New York Harbor features a spare composition with delicately rendered details of masts and vessels docked along the water’s edge.

Julianna Cox and her husband, Payton Curtis, are well-known artists in the field of animation. They met on the film set of Coraline, a dark, stop-action animation production based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, who also lives in Woodstock.  Both continue to work on animation projects and own the town movie house in Elora, the Gorge Cinema. Cox feels that her training in animation has had a positive effect on her painting technique, explaining that the focus and observation skills honed by learning to see things “frame-by-frame” have been helpful in creating compositions in watercolor and oil.

Several painters have influenced the artist, including Chinese figure painter Jin Gao, Woodstock watercolorist John Pike, and well-known Canadian landscape painter Tom Thompson. However, a Disney animation artist has had the greatest impact on Cox’s work. She credits Tyrus Wong, who painted the background scenes for the classic Disney film Bambi, with helping her develop a rich, layered quality in her paintings. She observed, “The multi-plane technique Disney used added so much depth. A sense of depth is what I most want to achieve in my work.”

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The public is invited to a gala opening reception for the artist on Friday, August 16, from 5 PM to 8 PM at the James Cox Gallery in Woodstock, 4666 State Route 212 in Willow, NY.  The entire exhibit may be viewed on the gallery website www.jamescoxgallery.com.