"Mystique" Print

The Dream of Freedom. By Branka Berberijan - Art critic and journalist. “Since time immemorial (remember the Altamira cave paintings), artists have always felt a vigorous fascination with the horse, that prototype which is so highly respected in the world of mythology and to which several civilisations have attributed supernatural gifts, as well as a whole variety of symbolic values. For some, it evokes the cyclic motion of life, for others those cosmic energies that arise from primeval chaos, whilst some see in the white and black horse the metaphor of life’s dichotomy - death... This beautiful animal is the idyllic and utopic dream of freedom, unobtainable in the real world, yet which is expressed by the artist through her unique method of painting. She paints the outline of her subject matter as if it were a true reproduction of the horse; softens the sharpness of the images with chalks treated with water, achieving with that Esfumato an extremely fine style, which, in turn, reduces the object of her inspiration into the idea itself, in a purely platonic way. Moreover, the plain white background, with no added detail and no chromatic treatment, allows the horse to stand out in all its splendour. Its magical beauty is also portrayed by concentrating on just one principal colour, from which the artist derives, with exceptional sensitivity, a whole spiral of different hues and shades which gives the work, not only an aesthetic purity, but also a poetic and semantic feeling, converting it into an artistic study about the relationship between realism and idealism. Janette Lockett's horses do not have riders, but they are by no means static. The author captures with great ease the agility and elegance of her subject matter in movement, whether it be a horse rearing or a herd galloping, always with their manes and tails flying freely through the air, giving the painting a dynamic vitality that brings the horses to life. However, the greatest artistic care may be seen in the depth and beauty of the animal’s eyes: it seems as if, when you look at them closely, there is a search for that enigmatic point around which radiates the essence of the horse's beauty. Janette Lockett's art, which originates from her intuition and follows a path leading to enviable intellectual levels, is a marvellous expression of her inner world of fantasy and dreams, and yet, filled with artistic strength that gives shape to her ideas and thoughts. At the same time, her unique artistic expression is a formidable contribution to the place of privilege that the horse holds in the history of art.”