Painting the landscape of lockdown

Monday 10 August 2020

With the doom and gloom of lockdown hanging over us, we all need a splash of colour in our lives.

Julia Coutanche has captured exactly this with her new exhibit at Jersey Museum's Link Gallery.

Comprised of 26 paintings which are positively popping with colours, the exhibit aims to inspire positivity.

This is the Jersey-born artist’s fourth solo show - all of which have taken place at Link Gallery - and includes a variety of acrylic paintings inspired by costal and rural landscapes, as well as her ‘Lockdown Landscapes’.

The Lockdown landscapes were created, as the name suggests, during lockdown, and each features a positive message or word repeated across the canvas on a background of Coutanche’s trademark vibrant colours.

Pictured: Julia Coutanche's Lockdown Landscapes feature positive messages inscribed on the canvas. 

She said that she has received a lot of positive feedback on the colour and vibrancy of her paintings and that even if people don’t enjoy the paintings themselves she hopes they will be uplifted.

Her work is comprised of a myriad of subjects, sizes and colours, aiming to convey emotion, rhythm and movement through the use of vivid colour.

She has used predominantly acrylic paints with some paintings featuring elements of collage and abstract interpretation with each one of them eye-catching and full of colour.

Pictured: Coutanche has used elements of collage in some of her work.

So far this year she has been featured the CCA Summer Exhibition and will be a part of a group show in October at The Harbour Gallery in St. Aubin alongside six other female artists.  

Coutanche studied graphic design, illustration and print-making in London and began her career as an animator, working on projects such as the children’s television show ‘Bertie the Bat’, commercials and independent films. She has taught art classes for adults for over 25 years and began painting in workshops with Ewa Gargulinska in London. 

She is now working for Jersey Heritage as volunteer Co-coordinator.

Pictured: The Link Gallery is found next to the Jersey Museum. 

The Link Gallery is located between the Jersey Museum and the Société Jersiaise and provides a new local artist a space to showcase their work every month. 

The exhibition will continue throughout August. Entry is free and the gallery is open between 10:00 and 18:00 every day.