Fleeting Moments by Julianna Cox

Small watercolors and oils on paper by Julianna Cox will be making a return engagement to the James Cox Gallery at Woodstock in a special exhibit on view from Friday August 16^th through Friday September 20^th.  In November of 2019 the artist debuted her miniature paintings in an exhibit at the gallery titled Small Marvels. Encouraged by the success of this introduction to her paintings, which ranged in size from 1 ½” x 3” to 5” x 7”, Cox has continued to pursue subjects that translate well on a small format.

The artist is no stranger to the Hudson Valley. She 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.

Though the artist pursued a professional career in animation, graduating from School of Visual Arts with a BFA in that field 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.

The artist’s new exhibit, titled Fleeting Moments, will again feature miniature works. 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”. Many pieces in the exhibit were painted while the artist traveled by train from Canada to New York. “Portability is definitely a plus here,” she quipped. 

When asked how she manages to capture so much information while moving swiftly past her subjects, Cox explained that she “generalizes” the scene, making loose line drawings and adding color and compositional notations in the margins. The next step is creation of 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 that surrounds Cox’s family home in Willow 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, which is situated on a hill at the gateway to the small hamlet.

On frequent trips to New York Cox enjoys painting cityscapes, though she prefers quiet country settings to the noise and congestion of working in an urban environment. However, she is quick to point out that she loves the balance achieved by exploring both worlds. Among the New York subjects featured in the upcoming show are iconic views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the World Trade Center. A more tranquil effect is created in a painting of New York Harbor, a spare composition with delicately rendered details of masts and vessels docked along the water’s edge.

Two very appealing pieces in the exhibit don’t fit either category. One is of an aging moonlit building in Fergus, Ontario, near the artist’s home in Elora. The other is an interior scene of a popular hangout in Cox’s childhood home, Catskilll Mountain Pizza in Woodstock.

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 learning to see things “frame-by-frame” have been helpful in creating compositions in watercolor and oil.

Many painters, including the Chinese figure painter Jin Gao, Woodstock watercolorist John Pike and well-known Canadian landscape painter Tom Thompson have influenced the artist. However, it is a Disney animation artist who 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. “The multi-plane technique Disney used added so much depth,” she observed. “A sense of depth is what I most want to achieve in my work.”

The public is invited to a gala opening reception for the artist on Friday, August 16, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the James Cox Gallery at Woodstock, 4666 State Route 212 in Willow, NY.