Janna Watson

Bau-Xi Gallery

Title: Red Velvet

Dimensions: 18" x 18"

Medium: Mixed media on panel

Value: $2,100

Date: 2023

Courtesy of Bau-Xi Gallery and the Artist

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Janna Watson's compelling abstract compositions use colour, line, and energetic brushstrokes to evoke emotion in the viewer. Her work possesses an elegant and powerful energy, created with a carefully balanced pairing of loose painting and gestural mark-making. Watson's paint strokes are feeling, sensing, emotive “moments” that wholly refer to this mark-making itself without retreating into the sometimes alienating world of pure abstraction. They are altogether honest and confident, vulnerable and evocative portraits of colour, texture, space, and movement. Watson holds an honours degree in Drawing and Painting from the Ontario College of Art and Design, and since graduating has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally in more than 30 solo exhibitions. Her work has appeared in notable public collections including those of TD Bank, CIBC, Nordstrom, Telus, the Ritz-Carlton, ONi ONE, the Soho Metropolitan Hotel, and Saks Fifth Avenue. In 2013, she was commissioned to create an impressive, 11 x 31-foot painting for the lobby of AURA, Canada’s tallest residential building. Watson’s paintings circulate regularly at international fairs, including the Toronto International Art Fair, CONTEXT Art Miami, and in Seattle, where they were recently featured by Artsy in its list of “10 Works to Collect at the Seattle Art Fair.” Watson’s work has been covered by publications such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, and House & Home.