Julianna Cox Watercolors Featured at James Cox Gallery
“Small Marvels”, a diverse selection of miniature watercolors by Julianna Cox, will be featured in a special exhibit opening November 24th at the James Cox Gallery in Willow, NY. A reception for the artist will be held that evening from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
A graduate of The School of Visual Arts, Cox has enjoyed a successful career in stop motion animation. She was part of the team that created the popular television series “Creature Comforts” – produced by Aardman Studios in Bristol, England – and Henry Selick’s Academy Award-nominated feature film “Coraline”. In recent years, the artist has turned her attention to fine art drawing and painting.
She spent her early childhood in Brooklyn, moving to the Woodstock art colony in 1990 when her parents, art dealer James Cox and landscape painter Mary Anna Goetz, opened The James Cox Gallery. “As a kid, I was surrounded by art.” The artist recalled. “Though I had my heart set on being an animator when I enrolled at SVA, I never lost my interest in painting.” On frequent visits to her parents’ home and gallery in Willow, just west of the Woodstock Village Green, the aspiring artist took workshops at the Woodstock School of Art where she studied drawing with Dean Keller and oil painting with Zhang Hong Nian and Lois Woolley. Later she joined her mother’s summer painting workshops on Cape Cod, where she developed a keen interest in landscape subjects.
A few years ago the painter returned to the Woodstock School of Art to take a class with one of the school’s most popular instructors, watercolorist Staats Fasoldt. “Studying with Staats was a real breakthrough,” Cox recalled. “I not only felt that the medium worked well for me but the portability of watercolors, as opposed to oils, enabled me to paint almost anywhere
For the past five years, Cox has been living close to Toronto in Elora, Ontario, where she and her husband, fellow animator Payton Curtis, own the Gorge Cinema, a popular art-house theater. While traveling by train to New York, she began creating miniature watercolors depicting fleeting landscape scenes glimpsed through the train window. “Julianna’s ability to capture these views while speeding through the countryside is really remarkable,” gallery assistant Corrine Race observed. Snow-covered fields, vibrant sunsets, and moody winter skies are among the many subjects captured in paintings no larger than 5 x 7 inches.
Cox also frequently travels to New York City to capture Iconic images of the city, many of which will be showcased in the upcoming exhibit, including the Empire State Building illuminated against an inky night sky. More intimate city subjects like rooftops, water towers, and architectural close-ups will also be featured.
“Some pieces are remarkably detailed,” Race further notes. “To render such precision on a very small format requires exceptional skill.” She pointed to “View from the Rhinecliff Train Station” as an example of how Cox applies her refined technique to render urban subjects, while many landscapes include minute strokes to indicate natural elements like tree limbs, tall grass and an occasional flock of birds. Simplicity prevails in other compositions, some arranged in a vertical format reminiscent of the Japanese Ukiyo-e aesthetic.
Cox is also an accomplished storyteller and graphic designer. She has just published her first graphic novel “The Ghost of Puffy”, which will be available at a book signing to be held in conjunction with the November 24th artist’s gallery reception. “Small Marvels” will be on view through December 19th.