Giovanna Francesca Cowling

Can you share a little about your creative process when starting a new drawing like this? How do you approach your initial sketches and composition?

When I create, I need to be in a space where I can naturally operate. I love starting with intensity. Visuals just work in my head and I use my hand, the paper and my tools to try and translate that. It needs to be chaotic, messy. The pieces that have touched me are the ones I’ve done completely by heart. Practice is wonderful, going step 1, 2 and 3. But for me it’s never just about that. For me, art is my one safe space where I can be intuitively fluid. When the process itself moves me more than the final picture. It’s a messy affair and it doesn’t really matter if no-one understands or appreciates it. It’s cathartic to let go of perfection when exercising your passion.

Can you describe the techniques you used in creating this drawing, and how did you decide on using willow charcoal for this work?

Charcoal is the medium I connect with the most. It’s a chance to capture life, a moment. It allows you to transport yourself to one simple task – to draw what’s in front of you. Willow charcoal is extremely flexible and it allows space for trial and error. You can blend and smudge (as I have in this work) and if something isn’t right immediately, unlike with some other mediums where it’s a case of starting again, adjustments can be made and de-tours can be taken to bring the artwork back to match the vision.

Your drawing emphasises the intricate details of the jaguars. How do you approach capturing the essence and personality of the animals you portray?

Onças are unique creatures, the South American jaguar is one of our ancestral guardians.

They are extremely symbolic beings in my culture and I’ve always loved them.

Since I was little I have always loved drawing animals. There’s infinite grace in nature. Feathers. Claws. Beaks. Eyes. Fur. It’s all so distinctive and strong. Unique, blended. I try to capture that particularly with the animals I connect with.

Mama Yaguareté, “Mother-Jaguar”, represents motherhood. A celebration of culture and ancestrality.

When creating this piece, I thought about all that has lived before me and my time. I see who I am now and I see the future too. It’s ritualistic and it’s repentant. It’s motherhood. Perpetual, existing continuously long after I’m gone. Drawing Mama Yaguareté came naturally to me. My imperfect way of paying homage to ingenuity, and dear, unconditional love, shared between a mother and her cub.

Uniqueness and authenticity are extremely important to me and everything that is different and intriguing has my full attention. Depicting the natural world by channeling emotions is how I connect with my creations. Range, distinctiveness, details & heart – our human psyche is naturally drawn to these elements. My art’s purpose is to merge, and to move.

Giovanna Francesca Cowling | Onca Mother and Son

What is the significance of the background in your piece? Does it hold deeper meaning beyond the jaguars themselves?

Motherhood is a wild journey, and one you won’t ever see full and clear. It’s instinctive.

You can’t see in the dark. You can’t see in the wilderness. It’s all subjective. What’s dark and wild to you is different to what’s dark and wild to me. And that mystery is what I’ve tried to capture in the background of my piece. A transcendental, parental feeling. Feral by nature, wild by heart.

Are there any specific themes or messages you aim to convey through your wildlife drawings?

We’re losing humanity. Considering populating other planets and casually travelling outer space for no good reason other than Ego. When I draw animals and wildlife, I am evoking beauty. Proclaiming an unspoken power. How special nature is. A true blessing to our sore, exhausted eyes. I try to channel that experience.

Animals tell us a story of the intertwined times, the past, the present, and how important it is to preserve our future here, on this planet.

How do you see your work evolving in the future, and what direction do you hope to explore in your artistic practice?

My intention is to go larger in scale. Large scale canvas. Keep exploring the monochromatic world of charcoal. Life is so full of colour. I’m so full of colour. Grey is my only compromise. Still, full of nuance. It’s strange to try and put in words but I do have a strong bond with it. Not everything in life is black and white. Except my cats. One is black and the other is white.

What role does nature play in your art, and how do you connect with the subjects you depict?

Happiest when I am sun-bathing or swimming in warm waters, my Indigenous roots are definitely a fundamental aspect of my being and consequently, my art. Both my grandmothers were raised in nature and I was born and raised in the most genetically diversified country, the biggest melting pot in history: Brazil. It’s inherited in me and all of us Pardos, the mixed people of Brazil.

My home country is endlessly beautiful and its roots are deep within me. Delving into my art, evoking nature and sentiment, it feels like I am somehow paying respect to those roots.