Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Canadian artist Janna Watson. This is Watson’s third solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in seven other exhibitions and secured numerous private commissions for her work. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

With thoughtful introspection, contemporary artist Janna Watson delves into the primordial darkness and unexpected warmth of the color blue. Watson’s paintings are comprised of purposeful clusters and confident gestural strokes of lush acrylic and oil paint. In this body of work the artist’s focused exploration of blue challenges familiar notions of color theory and symbolism. Earthy and pearly tones float on fields of velvety navy blue becoming emotional reflections of the physical world. The artist uses her abstract compositions to represent invisible fields caught between the moon and ocean. Watson draws you further into her personal landscape through expressive titles like Everything Moves on the Moon's Pulse.

The warmth of blue is the warmth of sadness; from the stillness of difficulty, we are often gifted momentum and passion. Like catching rain, I have approached this series hoping to capture the paradoxical fluidity of motion made transient by time and held by memory and emotional landscape. The layered nature of perception and expression is in the contrasting textures and color depths of this series. My hope is that this work offers a pause at the midpoint; I’m wanting to witness the cadence of time at mid-beat; the in-between and under the surface. This is my ethereal sort of tracking of time and movement.

(Janna Watson)