Geneviève Jost: Tales of Water
April 22 - May 11, 2023Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition in Toronto in over twenty-five years, Gallery Gevik is pleased to announce that Tales of Water, a collection of new works by esteemed Québec painter Geneviève Jost, will open on Saturday April 22, 2023 with the artist present from 1 – 5 pm.
Geneviève Jost was born in 1944 in Compiègne, France. Her father was a forester, which may have influenced her fascination with animals and the wooded enclaves they inhabit. Jost developed an early passion for drawing but ultimately chose to study education and worked as a social worker for a number of years before a visit to an exhibition of American outsider art in New York in 1965, suddenly re-awakened her desire to be a painter.
After settling in Sherbrooke, Quebec with her family in 1967, Jost began to teach herself how to paint, calling upon her childhood memories and the serene lake and wooded scenes that surrounded her home as inspiration. It quickly became clear that she was a natural, instinctively picking up the techniques she needed, particularly those of perspective and transparency, to convey what would become her signature magic realist style in the grand tradition of Edward Hicks and Henri Rousseau. Applying her colours like a wash, Jost works in subtle layers, resulting in a luminosity that gives her finished paintings a wonderful sense of depth.
A chronicler of the harmonious relationship between humanity and nature for over forty years, Geneviève Jost turns her eye to the theme of water for this latest exhibition:
A few years ago, during a stay in the Laurentians, I was suddenly struck by the natural beauty of the lake water. Perhaps my inspiration was also sparked by the joyful summer atmosphere that abounded throughout the area, or maybe it was something as simple as the ripples left by the paddleboards as they passed me by, but I felt a strong and unavoidable desire to paint the serene, beautiful scenes before me. Slowly but surely, as I started to paint, the image of water began to invade my canvases, and so the theme of this exhibition irresistibly presented itself.
It must also be said that I live by a river and every day when I look out my windows my eyes marvel at its unique, effervescent quality. For me, the story of water is a story of renewal; I’m sure that I will not live long enough to capture the enormous variety of colors and shapes that water can take on. It is sometimes fiery, and other times calm and mirror-like, reflecting the blue of the sky, which can suddenly turn black like ink.
Each painting in this exhibition is an attempt to capture the elusive wonder of water, and each piece leaves me wanting more! All I know for sure is that the lakes, mountains, forests and rivers of this vast country have had a huge influence on me and I’m trying to express that lasting impression through my art. – Geneviève Jost
