Joya: AiR / Catherine Fraser / CAN
photo Simon Beckmann
Joya: AIR / Catherine Fraser / CAN
“At Joya: AiR leaned into a two week adventure and experience gathering and intermingling with the land and residents coming and going. An experimental artistic dialogue developed between the land and what it produced. A place where land and clouds met. A dance of inner and outer landscapes. A rhythm and flow of the land was heightened by contrast of dry cracked clay soil and the flow and liquefaction of the clay in barrios. My artistic process consisted of experimentation with nature creating under paintings, gathering clay, clay painting with acrylic paints, sculpting and watercolour plein air.
The words that describe Joya: AiR are: flow, intermingling, compassion, nurture the land and nature. Artistic synergies and interactive meetings with those with varied backgrounds connect during unexpected paths crossing during the day and gathering through delicious vegan evening meals prepared by the hosts. There was the rhythm of the day and rhythmic lines with the landscape. Many areas to walk on foot in this divine, remote landscape. While in nature I enjoyed experiencing and sitting among the olive and almond trees and feeling the tactile quality of the clay. My process involves layering and superimposing ideas and images.
Here I began painting clay on cardboard and paper to mimic the temperament, the flow and the texture of the land. As the weather cleared there were rainbows to enjoy, sunrises and sunsets and I was able to sit and do plein air. It was an emotional and expressive time. As a lover of adventure, experimentation, and process in remote landscapes, this was a place for me.
Rubbing elbows with Simon and Donna, Yvonne, the other artistic creatives/ residents and pets and their dedication to a sense of place, tending and supporting the land and nurturing of artists in a unique way was exemplar and heart warming. I enjoyed their conversation and laughter as they weeded outside my studio. I leave with ideas for paintings, memories of olive trees with star like flowers on the stems and almond trees with their gnarled trunks with almond pods formed, and Simon says “ it is to be a good crop this year”
New landscapes are both refreshing, and unknown coming from a temperate green climate to a drier, land of desert colours. A different energy and slower pace. I am.. I am grateful and say thank you and blessings for the time, experiences, efforts and encouragement of many people”.
Catherine Fraser
Catherine has painted professionally since 1983 with art studios in Victoria and the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, BC Canada. She works in oils, acrylic, watercolour, graphite and pastels, mixed media and is constantly exploring and experimenting with new artistic responses to the world around her. Catherine has a love of nature superimposing and layering images and plein air painting using watercolours, charcoal, pen and acrylic paints. Drawing and expanding drawing has been a strong interest and practice.
Catherine is an accomplished and award winning artist having exhibited in over 25 one-woman shows, in Canada, US and Europe. She has an interest in traveling and finding new venues to exhibit. Her artwork has been selected into juried shows and she has received many awards. Catherine’s work is inspired and informed by an interest in colour, design and exploring inner and outer sacred space with a strong narrative.
She has BScN, University of Victoria, diploma Art Therapy British Columbia School of Art Therapy and Certificate in Fine Art From Vancouver Island School Of Art and divides her time between careers as an artist and an art therapist. In all aspects of her life she has woven threads of spirituality and creativity.