Back Garden in Lockdown

I painted this aspect of our garden at the start of spring in glorious sunny weather after months locked down in Melbourne. It was completed on location. This joyous glimpse encloses the viewer in a beautiful environment. It is painted from a close vantage point with the foreground cymbidium orchids in front of the path that leads to the picturesque bungalow draped in Banksia Roses. This garden landscape is luxuriant after the winter rains. Plants, such as the large Monstera, are clearly recognizable. It is painted freely with lyrical mark-making. Restful green hues unify this painting. and complement the foreground orchids. My garden paintings are a celebration of the restorative powers of nature. I feel so blessed that I have been able to paint continuously throughout lockdown. My garden has inspired my paintings for many years and was the catalyst for my painting gardens on commissions though this has not been possible in lockdown. Surprisingly this is the first time that i have painted this pretty aspect. The charcoal mount and black frame makes the vibrant image pop. It has glass to protect this water based medium. If the framing is not to your taste I would sell unframed at a reduced cost if you wished.

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Biography: Jo Reitze (Mrs de Carteret) is a Fellow of The Victorian Artists’ Society, Past President of Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and an award winning artist. She has won numerous awards and been shortlisted in several major selected exhibitions. Her formative years were spent in Ballarat before moving to Melbourne to study at Melbourne State College where she majored in painting under A W Harding. Her teaching career culminated in coordinating Art at Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College for twenty years. Her student’s VCE results were consistently among the best in the State. Jo continued to maintain her practice while teaching full time by painting in school holidays and occasionally at weekends. She has tutored at Victorian Artists’ Society Studios on Thursday mornings for the past two years though currently furloughed during Covid 19 Lockdown.. Jo is also in demand as a judge. Yet she still is able to give greater attention to her own work.In 2005 Jo established Jo Reitze Paints Your Garden where she paints gardens on commission. Her joyous, vibrant and expressive works in oils or gouache capture the essence of the scene and celebrate the beauty of nature. Through out her life Jo has also painted expressive coastal landscapes and seascapes at Ocean Grove and more recently by the Bay. In 2009 her Ocean Grove paintings were shown in Sea Air at Geelong Gallery as part of The Shell Regional Artists’ Program. In 2013 she was the invited artist for Whitehorse Artspace. Her exhibition, ‘The Artist’s Garden’ showed many of her paintings of her Surrey Hills garden that has provided her with ongoing sources of inspiration for over two decades. This exhibition serendipitously coincided with Monet’s Garden at the NGV so she was delighted to have Sophie Matthiesson, Curator of that show open her exhibition. In 2008, Jo was the artist of the ‘Beyond the Garden Wall’ project for Surrey Hills Neighbourhood Centre, painting 20 gardens of senior citizens to show the significance of gardening for their well being. Jo was also Artist in Residence at Cloudehill Gardens and was filmed painting there for “Put Colour In Your Life’ That painting was awarded the MSWPS, Annie Davison Oliver Award in 2016.