My paintings give an intimate view of the Basque Country, where I live and work.
My themes are the houses, villages and landscapes of Lower Navarre, a farming region in the foothills of the Pyrenees on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.
Initially, my paintings were like portraits of the houses that they represented.Local people would recognize the houses and identify them by name, just as they might recognize the portrait of a person that they knew.
This painting shows a house called Bersaitsia, in a secluded valley near my home in to the village of Ostabat, where several of the pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela together. For years, the house was abandoned and in ruins, but recently it has been bought and is now being restored.
Subsequently, my paintings became more abstract, concentrating on the essence of colours and materials. This is another painting inspired by the façade of Bersaitsia. The grid pattern recalls the sections made by the timber beams and stone work of the façade, which is typical of this region.
I also work with collage, using scraps of posters and natural and organic materials - hay, bracken, sheep's wool, even sheep's droppings! My intention is to show the Basque Country as I see it around me: the farms and animals, nature, the posters that one sees everywhere advertising local festivities or announcing political slogans and demonstrations ...
Sometimes, my paintings are totally abstract, concentrating on the effects of colour and texture.
I use oils and tempera on hand-prepared canvases whose rough, uneven texture echoes the weathered façades of the buildings that are my subjects.
I was born in Bordeaux, where my father was a metal-worker with his own workshop.
My mother was from a farming family in Ahaxe, in Lower Navarre, and I spent much of my childhood in the Basque Country.
I began my professional career looking after handicapped children, and later worked with children in art museums and schools. I began painting in Madrid in the 1980s, doing my initial studies in the studio of the Spanish abstract painter Teresa Muñiz. From Madrid, I moved to England, and then back to France. I have exhibited in Madrid, London, Oxford, Paris and the Basque Country. My paintings are in collections in Europe and the U.S.
Click here to see a series of paintings that I did of Ostabat in the 1990s.
Contact me!
Please send a message to josette.dacosta @ voila.fr
The courtyard of Asconatenia (1995) ... ... .. Oil on canvas 90 cm x 92.5 cm
My paintings give an intimate view of the Basque Country, where I live and work. 
Initially, my paintings were like portraits of the houses that they represented. Local people would recognize the houses and identify them by name, just as they might recognize the portrait of a person that they knew. 
Subsequently, my paintings became more abstract, concentrating on the essence of colours and materials. 
I also work with collage, using scraps of posters and natural and organic materials - hay, bracken, sheep's wool, even sheep's droppings!
Sometimes, my paintings are totally abstract, concentrating on the effects of colour and texture.
I use oils and tempera on hand-prepared canvases whose rough, uneven texture echoes the weathered façades of the buildings that are my subjects. 
I was born in Bordeaux, where my father was a metal-worker with his own workshop. 
I began my professional career looking after handicapped children, and later worked with children in art museums and schools. I began painting in Madrid in the 1980s, doing my initial studies in the studio of the Spanish abstract painter 
