The title, Spring, is an apt one for Jodie Wells’ latest exhibition which opens in a season when all nature quickens and we too experience a new spring in our step. Dormancy is liberated! The burgeoning energy associated with the arrival of springtime is manifest in the heavily textured surfaces of Jodie’s canvases.
Flowers, birds, and prancing horses are again the substance of the northern Gold Coast artist’s new body of work. “My main desire is to keep my subjects everyday and relatable”, she says. Jodie has never thought of herself as a ‘nature artist’, rather, her depictions reflect her intimate engagement with her surrounds and those of family and friends.
The flowers have most likely been picked from her garden and of the recurrent bird motifs she offers, “I find birds are an accessible subject. No matter where you live there is most likely to be feathered creatures around. About my home there are heaps of birds. In my in-laws’ backyard are two very large aviaries housing canaries, budgies, quails and fiches. Often just looking out a window and seeing a bird is a source of inspiration.”
Of her equine subjects Jodie muses, “I don’t know why I am drawn to painting horses. I think perhaps it’s because they have always been around me. Mum has horses in the back paddock and various family members have all owned horses, it seems I can’t escape seeing horses. Their intelligence, power, speed and for the most part gentle temperaments, lead to endless painting possibilities. Whether they are horses, wild birds or even birds in captivity, they all appear to display a distinctive personality. By observing an animal’s posture or body language, I hope to be able to express their spirit and energy.”
The popularity of Jodie’s works stems from her affable subjects and the appeal of sensuous, dense textures that are alive with vitality. She employs a direct technique characterised by an intense involvement in the materiality of paint. It is largely an instinctive and consequently risky process as her palette knife interprets and amplifies form in thick slabs of oil. The dynamism of these 3D markings affords the paintings such a palpable presence that they assume an existence independent of the image depicted.
Jodie Wells’ work is represented in the Gold Coast City Gallery Collection and she has been a finalist in a great number of Art Prizes including: Moreton Bay Art Prize, Brisbane 2015; Clayton Utz Art Award, Brisbane 2012; Stan and Maureen Duke Art Prize, GCCG 2011; Black Swan Portraiture Prize, Perth 2011, 2009, 2008; Lethbridge 10000 Art Award, Brisbane 2013, 2011, 2010; Mount Eyre Vineyards Art Prize, Rex-Livingston Gallery, Sydney 2011, 2010; Glover Art Prize, Evandale, Tasmania 2010; Border Art Prize 2010, 2008, 2007; Mortimer Art Prize, 2010; Waterhouse Prize – Works on Paper, South Australian Museum, Adelaide 2010; Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (the EMSLA), Coffs Harbour 2009; Open Art Prize, Royal Queensland Art Society, Gold Coast 2007.
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