Interview
JESSIE PITT jessiepitt.com
Born in Melbourne, Australia, artist Jessie Pitt is fascinated with mountains, and we don’t blame her. The sheer majesty of these monoliths is enough to stop one in their tracks. But Jessie isn’t concerned with ultra-realism in her work. She strives to capture the mood and colours that they reflect, speaking to her through the clouds, shadows and sheer size. Spreading her time in between Australia and Austria for many years, she works with various mediums such as charcoal, graphite, drawing ink and acrylic on canvas and paper. Currently experimenting with un-stretched canvas, the texture of the material plays an essential role in her work. How have you grown as an artist since we worked last year? I would say, that even though we would like to live in our own bubbles, I feel that in the current environmental and political climate it is getting harder too. I have always considered my art to be non-political, but I feel, even without it being planned it definitely has a message that is relevant to now. This being the connection to nature, that much of humanity has lost, yet is so essential to every one of us, for survival, but also protection, and even for our mental health. I am on such an inspired journey this year, and even though I have painted many artworks I feel like I have done nothing, it is a charming space to be in. I am really interested in creating immersive spaces, especially when I have exhibited this year and it is an on-going process in my thoughts, and I am sure that I will continue to move in this direction.
It is definitely connected to the direction I have been moving in, in that I try to convey the emotive side of the mountains, and the soul, not just a mountain portrait of one particular mountain but I guess the collective mountains. It is something that exists in all mountains, but in nature as well. I always work in a kind of organic flow, in the sense that things happen while I am painting, that then lead me off in different directions or inspires other paths. I feel like my work is definitely becoming a substantial body of work that is working vigorously together, which also helps to create the immersive spaces that I am trying to achieve. Would you say that your work attempts to encapsulate the sheer power and emotion of being amongst the mountains? Yes, I would definitely say this is a huge part of what I attempt to do. 32
