Janet Whitchurch

Artist's Statement

Because I have always loved thinking about art and visiting museums as well as making art, my oeuvre tends to be a bit intellectual and is usually stimulated by artwork done by artists in previous centuries. I also tend to work on “projects” for between 5-10 years and the work is somewhat similar over the course of those years. For example, I spent about 5-6 years painting and drawing race horses because of my love not only for horses, but also for the work of Degas and other artists whose subjects were horses. The more I worked on painting and drawing horses, the more I began to think of them as sculptural objects and when one day I saw an image of a horse on an operating table, it led to a new direction! As a result, I then spent a number of years studying the work of George Stubbs and attending surgery at a number of large animal hospitals in England. This yielded some interesting paintings and drawings that showed the surprising beauty of horses, unconscious and lying in unfamiliar positions during operations. A number of years later, after my first visit to Rome, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of architectural ruins and remains. Having seen and been interested in 19th century representations of archeological excavations I began to draw some of these ruins. I wanted to spend time at the American Academy in Rome drawing the excavation of Nero’s Domus Aurea, an excavation begun in the late 20th century, but unfortunately one of its ceilings collapsed and they prevented people from entering it. I spent time at the American Academy on another project. For the past five years, I have been working on a project that involves the ‘discovery’ of the Salinas River and Valley - a riff on the documentation made by 19th century artists and explorers in the United States.

Because of financial and storage limitations, my work is mostly on paper. I unapologetically love to draw and do not think of my drawings only in terms of preparation for paintings. While I use color pencil, ink and pastel, I mostly work in watercolor for works with color. I feel that I have become very adept at achieving what I want to represent in this medium. One thing that has always appealed to me is the effect that light has on subjects and atmosphere, and watercolor is certainly a way for me to show that.