Joelle Provost

Art Exhibit

Nov. 10

5 - 9 PM

Art Exhibit

Opening & Reception, November 10th

from 5-9 pm

Exhibit Open Weekends Nov. 11 -12 and 18-19, 12:00 to 3:00pm.

A major solo exhibit of drawings and paintings by Bay Area artist Joelle Provost will open at the Piedmont Center for the Arts on Friday, November 10, with a recpetion from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Refreshments and lights snacks will be served.

The show, titled Art of our Modern Landscape, will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. on the weekends of November 11-12 and 18-19.

On view will be 10 oil paintings, ranging in sizes from 48” x 48” to 70” x 60”, based upon the artist’s vision of how 19th century painters would view the world’s current environmental issues. 

Also on display will be five large scale drawings inspired by Leonardo DaVinci’s Ink and Pen invention drawings. Some works in the new series honor lesser told stories of animals affected by extreme climate shift.

Provost is a professional painter with an affinity for 19th century painters, such as Gustave Courbet, Arnold Bocklin, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent Van Gogh. Also a  nature enthusiast, through observing her surroundings, both urban and green, Provost began to question what artists from previous centuries would think of the world’s current landscapes, with trash and other manmade pollutants that have affected the earth’s environment and animal species. 

Would Monet choose to include the soda can floating by Lily pads in a given body of water? Would he feel motivated to create images of nature, despite the overwhelming impact of humans on it? 

In Art of our Modern Landscape, Provost has created a body of work that honors these artists with her vision of what they might think of the earth’s current environmental predicament. If transported to our time, what they would choose to depict? 

Provost’s work has been exhibited in New York and California. She holds a MFA in Studio Art and Integrated Media from Brooklyn College, and has won awards for her work including Most Outstanding Artist Award, UC Davis (2010), and the Charles G. Shaw Award at Brooklyn College (2014 and 2015). 

All painting on display will be available for purchase. For more information call Joelle Provost at 510-289-0262 or see her website at: www.joelleprovost.com 

From the Artist:

Frequently I am asked by younger but aspiring artists: how do I make life work for me, isn't it hard to be an artist? And I say in response, of course it is hard, but what good comes easy? Without going into each event on the undulating chart that illustrates the artist's life, it needs to be said that the only way I can justify this life as an artist is by dedicating the art itself to the planet and its inhabitants. Eventually, I would like to be able to donate works to organizations serving to heal this planet, but currently we are in Art's high production phase. Though I always feel like I ought to be on the front lines, serving other species more stoically somehow, my loved ones remind me that the arts are equally important. Because the work is very satisfying to make, the work I hope can in part nourish the viewer, as there are too many times and too many places where and when we do not feel nourished, and we leave these places half empty and hungry for more. This is an ambitious goal to provide a visual level of satisfaction or nourishment for the viewer, but it's my ultimate aim, nonetheless. In any case, I'm very excited about this new series of drawings I am producing for the show on November 10th, and I hope you will enjoy them as well.