Artist Q & A: Janna Watson

In this new artist Q & A, Janna Watson reflects on Undercurrent, tracing how her bold, suspended compositions and centred gestures emerge from a deeply autobiographical process and the enigmatic nature of the subconscious.

Undercurrent opens on Bau-Xi Vancouver's main level on February 7 and runs through February 26, 2026.

Janna Watson, Free Fall. Mixed Media on Panel, 72 x 84 inches

1. Undercurrent speaks about “dragging something over from dark to light” as a spiritual and psychological act. What initiates that movement for you? Does it begin with emotion, memory, material impulse, or something else entirely?

This body of work is an initiation of interior integration - in psychology terms, merging different aspects of the self.  My whole life I have searched for God in external places. I am very inspired by the sky as an element of abstraction in nature and have often looked up and out for inspiration. Undercurrent reaches a kind of sky deep inside the being. The series of 60 x 60 inch paintings, which have a base of moody, watery movement with a centred composition, reflect an internal dawn. The work is reflective and meditative.  

Janna Watson, Drizzling Words. Mixed Media on Panel, 30 x 40 inches


2. Over the course of recent years, you have developed two prominent composition styles – that of the suspended form, and that of a dense vibrancy of colour and gesture. Can you describe how these two styles relate to each other?

I work with my panels flat on the ground, and particularly with the larger pieces I feel like I am inside of the composition while I am working on them. I wanted to bring the viewer into the composition the way I experience it, so I decided to move in a macro direction where the composition is blown up and has a limitless feeling. In contrast, the floating central compositions are held by a kind of gravity or negative space. I find the conversation between the full-bleed pieces and the suspended pieces create their own narratives when curated together. The conversation is in the negative space and, in a sense, a visual comparative to the silence between the notes.    

Janna Watson, L-R: Heart is a Moon 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each Mixed Media on Panel, each 60 x 60 inches


3. The centred compositions feel deliberate and steady. What does centring offer conceptually or emotionally in this collection?

Centering compositions allows the paintings to radiate their own focused energy, the way the sun or the moon radiate. 

Janna Watson, Underwater Feelings. Mixed Media on Panel, 30 x 40 inches


4. How does time operate regarding the creation of your paintings? Are these works built quickly in bursts, or slowly through accumulation and pause?

This particular body of work was started early in 2025. I did a few smaller series to explore the gradation of dark to light. At first I didn't fully understand what I was doing; I work on a very intuitive level and come back to the work cognitively. In this way, my creative process is like finding the pot within a lump of clay. Over the past five years the inspiration of my work has an arch - from looking out to the sky, to the throat where language is, to the heart where sanctuary is. This series moves further down to the gut, where inside we can find an internal sky. 

This work is an accumulation of pause and reflection. However, when my primordial tap is on and I'm connected to my core energy source, things can move quite quickly. I always work from this place of flow, but often the reflecting and the layers take time.

Janna Watson, L-R: The Sun is a Heart 1 (sold), 2 and 3. Each Mixed Media on Panel, each 30 x 30 inches


5. Your paintings often hold a tension between control and release. How do material “accidents” or unexpected outcomes factor into your decision-making?

When you work intuitively there are no accidents. I feel that I am an equal player to my materials, and these unexpected movements are often doors or pathways. The work is unfolding, and if for some reason the unexpected creates unsatisfactory dissonance in the work, I'll let it sit for a few days so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. 

Janna Watson, Movement from Within. Mixed Media on Panel, each 40 x 55 inches


6. Are there ever moments when a painting, and therefore an emotion, resists being brought into the light - when opacity or darkness feels necessary rather than something to resolve?

I don't use the act of painting as art therapy; my work doesn't reflect unresolved or the resolving of personal emotions. My work is an aesthetic exploration of contrast. Contrast creates many emotions by natural and poetic force. We feel contrast every day in the sky, turning from day to night, we feel it in seasons changing, we feel it in any relational beginning or ending. Contrast creates emotive reaction because the range of emotions or light or temperature is quite intense in transition. This work integrates dark and light as a whole spectrum of contrast. We can't have one without the other, and when we let what we might think the darkest parts of ourselves move into the light, it's a very powerful resonance of self.