Joy Moore Landscapes
Joy Moore Landscapes
About Me
biography
I was born in Bristol, England and studied art in Bristol and Birmingham graduating from Birmingham Art College in 1978. On my graduation I was awarded the Dame Louisa Ryland scholarship which enabled to me travel to Paris and visit the Louvre for the first time.
I then lived in London for 25 years where I ran a dual career as a manager of environmental projects and working as an artist. In 2006 I moved to Piemonte, in Northern Italy where I live in a converted farm house and have my studio in the former hayloft. Since moving to Italy I have been able to paint full-time.
about my work
Landscape has always been my passion and I am lucky to live in the Monferrato Hills at the foot of the Alps which have been my main subject matter since I have lived in Italy. However I do love to explore other dramatic landscapes from time to time - Scotland and Ireland being key favourites.
My aim is to paint the essence of the landscape. - my emotional response to it rather than the view of it. By that I mean that I aim to translate how I feel when I am in the landscape at any given time, through the use of colour, light, space and form.
Wherever you look in our hills you see medieval churches and castles and vineyards., all of which shape it’s history. My earlier work included fairly figurative buildings and to some extent the form of the landscape but now I am moving towards greater abstraction and I am exploring the use of symbolic marks to indicate the features of the landscape. Colour has always been a key feature of my work and now I want to push the boundaries of form and space. However my work is always representative of nature.
In recent years I have developed what I call my "Flowerscapes" I have always loved flowers., but as with my landscapes I want to convey the energy and colour of both wild and cultivated flowers, rather than their botanical form. Many of these paintings appear to be completely abstract, but they always come from something tangible. - a specific flower or maybe the profusion of wild flowers in a mountain meadow. (imagine Wordsworth’s host of golden daffodils) For me the word flowerscape exemplifies the color and aesthetic appeal of flowers.
how I create it
I like to walk in the hills and mountains and make sketches and take photographs but mostly to absorb the atmosphere and to see and feel the seasonal changes.
In my studio I often work up larger drawings from my sketches or memories using a range of media - pastels, inks, watercolour. I then start my paintings with a series of acrylic washes sometimes moving onto oils. I like to explore the quality of the paint, often scraping paint off of the canvas revealing subtle textures and colours beneath and contrasting these with opaque textured paint.
However sometimes I will come back to my studio from a walk and start working intuitively to quickly get down my feelings and memories.
Recently I have focused more on working in acrylic and mixed media such as inks and pastels as my work becomes more abstract and experimental,
showing and selling my work
I have exhibited and sold my work in galleries in Italy and other European Countries - England, Scotland , Germany, France, Spain, Sweden; and in the United States. - Los Angeles, Tennessee and New York.
I am represented by Carmen Caruso Gallery, Sicily, CSA Farm Gallery, Turin, Artsail.art. Adelinda Allegretti Arte, Rome and Artàporter Turin.
I take part in International Art Fairs including the Florence Biennale where I exhibited in October 2021.
my life in Italy
I have never looked back on my decision to live in Italy. My home is in the beautiful rolling hills of Monferrato in the small town of Cocconato, some 50 kilometres from Torino (Turin). I look out of my windows and see hills, mountains and vineyards. On the road where I take my regular walks I can see both Monte Bianco and Monviso (where there is the source of river Po). Yes I am very lucky. My subject matter is all around me - within an hour I can be in the Alps for more dramatic views.
The community where I live is very import to me. Cocconato is a picturesque mediaeval town but it is not just a picture postcard, it has a thriving working community into which I am proud to have been accepted. I am a member of the Cocconato Business Consortium and working with our Mayor and other artists in the area we are starting to host art exhibitions of local and visiting artists.
