Springing Forward

Joy Elaine Moore
Apr 27
3 min read

Greetings from Cocconato.

My main occupation at the moment is my solo show that starts on the 1st May at the Maison Bleue gallery in the Fort di Bard.

I will be showing 23 paintings. Preparing for it has consumed most of my time over the last few weeks. As I write, a beautiful catalogue is in print -

This is the front cover.

I don’t seem to be able to include the catalogue here - but I am working on it and hopefully I will be able to send it to you separately in the future.

I am very excited about this exhibition. It is in a very prestigious location and I hope this will attract lots of visitors.

So I hope to be able to tell you about some more successes in my next newsletter.

I mentioned my exhibition at the Gufo Bianco restaurant in Turin in my last blog. January and February saw me very busy creating paintings for it. The exhibition was installed in mid March. In all there were 10 new paintings all in a panoramic format. I found this a very pleasing way of representing the landscape here, as there are so many hilltop views where the hills just spread for miles in a horizontal mode and my aim was to create that sense of breadth. Here are a few photos of the exhibition.

This one has found a new home - hoping there will be more to follow!

In April our local business consortium in Cocconato in association with the Association of the Disciples of Escoffier, (ADE) arranged a series of dinners in 5 local restaurants where the each chef created their own version of the famous Fricandeau recipe created by Auguste Escoffier. This came about because of a connection between the school of Escoffier and one of our local restaurants going back almost 100 years. Each restaurant held a prestigious opening night. The business consortium invited me and my fellow artists at our gallery Artemide plus another local artist to create a “Menu d’Autore” which is a large scale printed menu illustrated with the work of an artist. The prints are then retained in the local archives and by the ADE. It was a great project and here is an image of my “menu d’autore” I chose Monviso for the subject as it is visible from practically everywhere in and around Cocconato. The menu is signed on the back by the ADE

Cocconato is well known for it’s food and wine. When we opened the Gallery last year our aim was for Cocconato to become also known for its art. Being invited to contribute to the history of Cocconao through the creation of these "menu d’autore" is I think a sign of some success.

In March I was invited to take part in an exhibition with 4 other female artists - under the title of "All'Arte Femminile" at the CUBE gallery/restaurant in Chieri, Turin

I was really pleased that one of my paintings was chosen for the poster.

On the 5th April we reopened our gallery in Cocconato after the winter break - a period of little activity in the area. It was very successful for me with 4 paintings finding new homes - one of which was a favourite of mine that I have had for a few years and though it would never sell - but it did - a reminder to show older work every now and then. We were open on the 25th April which is national Liberation Day in Italy when lots of festivals take place. At Cocconato we held ours - it was a great day - lots of sunshine and lots of people and 2 more of my paintings found new homes.