The journey so far
On the shelf there was a book with a silver cover and colourful letters, the contents; all epochs of the fine arts. Salvador Dali`s surreal landscapes, figures and animals caught young Joshua’s eyes. This was his first contact with a world in which people could paint what they want; and above all, how they want.
Later in his teenage years and beginning of his twenties, he used to doodle a lot on cardboard, paper, concrete walls, guitars and shoes while working as a plumber, not knowing that this was the beginning of a new form of expression for himself.
After expressing interest in starting painting and asking if his sisters old easel was still around, his parents gifted him his first easel when he was twenty-four. He then painted four paintings, wich he didn’t hate. But it wasn’t the time to paint yet, and so, his other passion took over and wanted all his attention, playing instruments.
Improvising little tunes and instrumental pieces is what fascinated him the most. In someways, it was painting, but with notes and harmonies.
After spending time traveling through Asia and New Zealand it was time for a change. Joshua and his partner Dominique left Zermatt and found themselves in a place called Grindelwald. It was in that mountain village where painting should come back into Joshuas life. Not having anyone to jam or write music with, he slowly started to lose motivation in creating music and he was in dire need for a different form of expression.
After a good long night out, he gifted the paintings he made at the age of twenty-four, to some of his best friends. Seeing their excitement rekindled his desire to sketch again.
But as it goes with hangovers, the first thing that he did, was scrolling through Instagram. And there he found what he subconsciously was looking for, cubistic art, and it came in the form of Doreen Jeglinski’s wonderful paintings. Inspired by that find, he had to look at paintings of the artist that brought art into his life in the first place. The same artist he saw in that book with the silver cover; Salvador Dali.
Then he went down the rabbit hole and when he made his way back out of there, he’s seen every documentary about Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Monet and Van Gogh there was on YouTube.
So he got himself a set of pencils and a drawing paper pad and started to create his first abstract cubistic figures. None of his sketches had made it on to the canvas yet, but that was about to change.
When Joshua arrived in British Columbia in October 2020, his easel and paints were still on a ship somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean. But there was an artist in residence at the Malahat Farm, the place where he then resided. Her name was Sheila Thomas, and she supplied him with the tools he needed, so that he could paint again.
It was in Canada where he realized that he could combine music and painting into one form of art. That was the time he found his style of painting abstract musicians and performers, who are full of charisma and joy, as well as madness, and a lot of the times, full of themselves.
After the tenth piece was completed, his work was shown to the owner of the gallery at Craidelonna Oceanedge Lodging where all ten pieces were displayed for a while.
With this encouragement, Joshua entered the painting `Janis Streetband` into the Sooke Fine Arts Show. It got accepted and was then displayed in the 2021 online exhibition.
Soon after that, all his creative energy started to flow into another big project, wich was building a home with his partner Dominique. The painting had to rest again, for almost two years. There was little time to create paintings but he slowly started again, painting a commission for his mother and other little artworks. What really pulled him out of artistic hibernation was the grand opportunity to have a Vernissage with his art at the Vosino Cafe, wich will be on from August to October 2024.