The slow long love of winter
When you live in one of the most northern metropolitan areas in the world, certain things happen in the cold and the dark. I find there is a re-set to a glacial pace of productivity, compared to the business of putting gardens to bed in October. This can be unsettling, but I try to let the long candlelit silences of the heart just happen, as best I can. I need a bit of dormancy as much as the perennials under their snow blanket outside. This November, leisure was mine, helped along by a bit of foot surgery, stitches and bandages. So I had time to collect together a few of my winter images and bring them into our local ShopWares artist collective store. The low sun in the neighborhood trees, the bright splash of seasonal plants in the house, these are the glimpses that I hope are restorative and inspiring at the same time.
Thanks Local Art Lovers!
The St. Albert Painters Guild's first ever outdoor art tour on JUNE 19, turned out to be a great success for many of us 34 member artists. I feel very blessed and grateful to have been able to greet almost 90 visitors to my driveway over the course of the day (but not all at one time! My exhibit was a pop-up watercolor gallery, where I could feature not only recent but retrospective work. It was so nice to see folks who just needed to be out and about after so long. Their enthusiasm was a great affirmation that after such a prolonged period of isolation, humans really do need visual art.
I was very happy to see these six paintings find new homes!
Sustaining an art practice in difficult times
Last winter was a time of huge transition but also a season of blessings. It took awhile to set up and adapt to having my studio at home. But now it feels very accessible. But however would I paint consistently without the encouragement of other artists around, and while the world went a bit crazy? One of the best things about the season was sitting down most days to work on a large commissioned painting. Even better, it put me in a summer mood. My task was to paint a St. Albert backyard much loved by the homeowners. Every day, I thought about the greens of summer, the bright pink and purple petunias and the lush tomato plants getting ready to fruit. And by February, ta-da, winter was almost over, including the Polar Vortex, and my summery painting was done!
"Summer Afternoons" Watercolor, 22 x 30
