Jo Reitze
Jo Reitze (Mrs. de Carteret)
Qualifications: Higher Diploma of Teaching (Secondary Art & Craft) Majoring in Painting
Affiliations:
Committee Member and Past President of MSWPS
Fellow Victorian Artists Society (FVAS)
Painting Tutor, Victorian Artists Society
Artist statement:
Born in Ballarat, Jo studied at Melbourne State College, majoring in Painting under A W. Harding. Her teaching career culminated in Coordinating Art at Canterbury Girls Secondary College for two decades.
Her move to Surrey Hills in the early 80s awakened her passion for painting gardens. Concurrently she continued painting dynamic coastal impressions. Both subjects celebrate nature, its beauty, and restorative qualities.
Her expressive, joyous paintings, in oils or gouache, are freely executed on location, with lyrical mark-making, vibrant colours, strong tonal contrasts and diverse patterns. They capture the essence of the scenes. In recent years she has also created pen drawings of these subjects.
Her early paintings of her original garden were the catalyst for establishing Jo Reitze paints your garden (Commenced 2005) where she immortalizes client’s gardens. Since, she has painted numerous gardens in Melbourne and country Victoria. This has ensured her focus on her own practice while painting in superb places and enabling social contact with other passionate gardeners. During this period, she also painted twenty gardens for SHNC ‘Beyond the Garden Wall’ Project and was Artist in Residence at Cloudehill, Olinda where she was filmed for Put Colour in Your Life. Her episode can be viewed on www.joreitzeartist.com.au
Jo has been actively involved with MSWPS since 2010. She is currently a Committee Member and was formerly MSWPS President (2013-2016) and Bulletin Editor (2010-2018).
Jo has won numerous awards and has exhibited widely including as the invited artist for Whitehorse Artspace 2013. This exhibition, Jo Reitze ‘The Artist’s Garden’ was Officially Opened by Sophie Matthiesson, Curator Monet’s Gardens NGV.
Jo was awarded MSWPS Danks Trust Award 2017, MSWPS Annie Davison Oliver Award 2016 and received Highly Commended Certificates in MSWPS Annual Exhibitions of 2019, 2018 and 2016
SELECTED CURRICULUM VITAE:
Solo Exhibitions (recent):
2021 ‘Celebrating Life in Gouache Oil & Pen’ Retrospective Exhibition Victorian Artists Society Galleries
2021 ‘Garden Delights’ The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove
2020 ‘Celebrating Life in Small Works’ Kinross Arts Centre, Toorak
2018 ‘Succulents in Situ’ Kinross Arts Centre, Toorak
2015 ‘Garden Glimpses’ Tacit Contemporary Art, Abbotsford
2014 ‘Ocean Grove Impressions’ Ocean Grove Uniting Church Hall
2013 ‘The Artist Garden’, Whitehorse Artspace, (invited artist) Box Hill Town Hall
2012 ‘Cloudehill Impressions’ Chapel on Station Gallery, Box Hill
2009 ‘Sea Air,’ Geelong Gallery (Shell Regional Artist’s Program).
Group Exhibitions (recent):
2019 Contemporary Exhibition 345 Art Creative, Mont Albert
2019 Earth Space2B, St Kilda
2017 ‘90×90’ 90 artworks from 90 years of collecting (Whitehorse Art Collection) Whitehorse Artspace
2016 ‘Legacy of the Impressionists’ Whitehorse Artspace, Box Hill Town Hall (Invited to show with works of The Australian Impressionists and Mark Dober, Kathy Fahey & Philip Davey, three other Contemporary artists)
2016 ‘Little Gems’ with Marion Chapman Chapel on Station Gallery, Box Hill
2016 ‘Recollections’ with Louise Foletta, Celia Beeton, & Marian Rennie VAS Galleries East Melbourne
2012 ‘Come into the Garden’ with Marion Chapman Bayside Gallery, Brighton Town Hall
Finalist Selected Exhibitions:
2021 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize Geelong Gallery
2020, 2018, 2016, 14, 12, A.M.E. Bale Art Awards Glen Eira Council Gallery, Caulfield
2020 Southern Buoy Studios Landscape Prize Mornington
2020 Southern Buoy Studios Portrait Prize Mornington
2019 Len Fox Prize Castlemaine Art Museum
2019 Sacred Edge, Queenscliff Queenscliff Uniting Church
2019 Kenneth Jack Drawing Award AGRA Gallery Camberwell
2019 Eastbourne Art Prize Victorian Artists Society Galleries
2018, 2016, 14, 12, A.M.E. Bale Art Awards Glen Eira Council Gallery, Caulfield
2019, 2017, 2014, 2013, VAS Artist of the Year Final Victorian Artists Society Galleries
2013 Len Fox Award, Castlemaine Art Museum
2013 Finalist, Borough of Queenscliffe, 150th Anniversary Art Exhibition
Recent awards:
2019 Second Prize Drawing Rotary Club of Ocean Grove
2018 Second Prize Oils Bacchus Marsh Rotary
2017 Danks Trust Award MSWPS (108th Annual Exhibition)
2016 Annie Davison Oliver Award, MSWPS (107th Annual Exhibition)
2015 Best Oils Bacchus Marsh Rotary Art Show
2014 Best in Show Rotary Club of Ocean Grove
2013 Gordon Moffatt Award, VAS Artist of the Year Award Exhibition
2012 Best in Show, Rotary Club of Ocean Grove
2012 Watercolour Society Australia, Kenneth Jack Memorial Award (Flowers/Gardens)
Recent Commendations:
2019 Highly Commended MSWPS 110th Annual Exhibition
2018 Highly Commended MSWPS 109th Annual Exhibition
2017 Highly Commended VAS Applied International Contemporary Award
2016 Highly Commended MSWPS Danks Trust Award Exhibition,
2014 Highly Commended Strathdon Community Art Show
2013 Highly Commended Strathdon Community Art Show
1972 – 2010 Received over 30 painting prizes including The VAS Lord Mayor’s Prize 1985 and The Royal Overseas League, Mountbatten Award 1986 and numerous Highly Commended certificates.
Art Teaching:
2018-20 Painting Tutor Victorian Artists Society
2005-7 VCE Art Teacher, Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College
1984-2005 Art Coordinator, Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College
2000 (January) Exchange Art Teacher, Bunkyo University High School, Japan
1972 – 84 Taught Art & Craft at Bacchus Marsh, Camperdown and Parkwood High Schools
Major Art Projects:
2015 Filmed painting at Cloudehill for ‘Colour in Your Life’ (View on www.joreitzeartist.com.au)
2009-11 Artist in Residence, Cloudehill
2008 Beyond the Garden Wall Project (A Surrey Hills Neighbourhood Centre)
I painted twenty gardens of Seniors to demonstrate how gardening enriched their lives).
Publications:
2018 My oil painting of La Trobe’s Cottage is shown on Page 29 of The Gardens of The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) by Anne Vale.
2016 Imago Mundi, Looking Down Under 200 Contemporary Australian Artists Luciano Benetton Collection
2015 ‘An invitation to wonder’ Chapel on Station Gallery 10th Anniversary Tribute Book (26 selectedartists)
2016 ‘Beyond the Garden Wall’, (Twenty-two Gardeners and their Gardens) Sue Barnett & Jo Reitze
2017 MSWPS – In Celebration of the 100th Annual Exhibition
Selected articles:
2021 Garden Delights Bellarine Times, West Coast Times 29 April
2018 ‘The Canvas is Always Greener’ by Megan Backhouse Saturday Age Gardening, 17 March
2018 Hemmed in by Subdivision artist plants a creative haven Sydney Morning Herald (on line)
2011 ‘Verdant Landscapes Close to Home’ by Denise Gadd, The Age, Melbourne Life, 24 November
2012 ‘Gardens on Canvas’ “ by Janet De Silva, The Age, A2 Gardening, 16 July
Represented: Melbourne City Council and Civic Collections of Banyule, Monash, Moorabool, Preston and Whitehorse as well as ANZ Bank, Victorian Artist’s Society and private collection in Australia and Overseas.
