Juggler #2
This is one of a long series of multi-media pieces that focused on the issues we struggle as humans to balance. It is an ongoing battle of demands on our environment versus our material desires. It is a fragile world we are creating, and we need to refine our juggling skills if we are going to see our children's children into the next millennia. I hope the lessons we are learning will be taken seriously and applied to the technology that carries us forward.
Manscape
Manscape is a large exploration combining the forms of man and the flowing lines in an imaginative landscape. I was sitting in the car waiting - one of those serendipitous moments, and sketched the sleeping form of a man in the car beside me. - also waiting.... Little did he know that he would be an instrument of my muse that would bring me so much pleasure.
Study for Hugh's class
This is a small study I made in college. They were 20 minute poses and we had to work fast - thus no detail - job - to capture the form in the most expressive way possible. It's companion study was pinned to the wall to dry and forgotten. When I remembered it, I went back to the studio only to discover it missing. I guess I should be glad that someone appreciated it enough to take it home.
Merlin
The family who ran a local equestrian centre commissioned this as a wedding gift. Merlin was a very special part of a young woman's life. It was a rather emotional moment when she realized whose portrait it was and I thoroughly enjoyed making it for her. We get so attached to the animals in our lives and when we part with them, it eases the loss when we have a small visual connection to those memories.
Out of the Closet
Out of the closet was painted to honour the trust a friend placed in me. I made some wonderful friendships at OCA and by fourth year they were cemented in time and common experiences. I realized in the middle of a conversation as we straddled drawing horses that I knew little about one of those friends and I asked her if she had a boyfriend. She went very quiet. Said nothing for a moment. And then with that trust I spoke of, she told me her partner was a woman. This was her out of the closet experience. I am not proud to say that in those days I was not open to the idea that accepted any kind of sexual orientation other than heterosexual - a guy and a girl, but this sharing made me realize that friendship has nothing to do with what happens in a person's private life and I guess I grew up a bit that day... well perhaps a little less bigoted. I will never forget her nor the impact of that trust nor the import of the lesson she taught me that day.
Rio D'Azul
The cosmos - that distant garden of light and mystery, where little more than imagination can take flight, at least for now, allows me this exploration. In colour and form, in texture and light, this piece was so much fun to make. Like mud pies and patty cakes, nursery rhymes and clapping games, some pieces are for the artist, a joy. Such was Rio D'Azul.
- River of blue or Blue River.
- River of blue or Blue River.
Dunedin Road
Sometimes when you begin a painting,what you have planned takes a right turn, and it becomes something quite different. Dunedin Road was one of those. It was the first painting created after an extended hiatus. I kept it simple so that I could build up my confidence once more. I kept it bright so that the canola fields would reflect back an optimism for days that lay ahead. I kept the rhythms moving to help my eye travel around the surface. I didn't get to keep it very long. It was barely dry before it was sold through the Dufferin County Museum show. I know it went to a good home and that pleases me.
Red Breasted Herring
Red Breasted Herring is a rather poignant painting for me. Memory does that to one. When my ex and I were first married, on our very first Christmas, this ornament was a given as a gift to me. It was I believed given with love and all the promise that a strong love entails - or so I believed. Naivity has its cost. But the painting remains an artifact from a time when at least I was happy, my children healthy, and as for the rest... there are some things that are not what they seem, and you just have to accept them and move on.
Gus and the Lady Em
Gus and Emily were my first two retrievers. Emily was the one who smiled while Gus was just the gentlest frendliest puppy you would ever want to meet. I miss them both. The next generation has come along but I will always have a special place in my heart for these two. I'm glad I did this painting of them. Makes me feel good when I pass by. Obviously this one isn't for sale, but if you have a special someone in your life that you would like portrayed, do let me know.
Cradle of Conception
Cradle of Conception was created in response to a question about my creative process. I was asked to write an essay in artspeak. I refused...lol. For me, my painting is about expressing and communicating my ideas, my passion, my love of colour and form. How could I cloak that in an ideolect - a select language that excludes people without art language as part of their frame of reference - as part of their education, their cultural upbringing, their social fabric. So I painted this.
It is 48"x60" - Oil on canvas.
I might sell if somebody twists my arm .... real hard..hehe
It is more my autobiography that the words that couch my accomplishments.
The Ballerina
"I never took ballet. Come to think of it, I never took to ballet either! I just couldn't get my heart wrapped around those leaps and twirls that were just so many colourful notes on a stage. There was no mystery, none of the sensuous physical response to what lay within the music. Everything is ridged, too perfect. At least, I couldn't find it, that imperfection that lends mystery to an art. So rather than torture myself, I chose to enjoy the modern dance, a place where my senses could run rampant and lust for those emotions that poured themselves out on the boards in a very sexual lay it on me `kinda' way. This drawing I did while I was in college. I was home sick with a bad case of flu and sat Adrienne, my daughter, up in front of the television watching `Happy Days' while I stood behind her to draw. She found out that ballet wasn't her thing either. The lessons lasted six weeks perhaps and then her sore little toes won the battle. I think both of us are more the Gene Kelly types, tapping our way through the puddles of Paris, singing our hearts out as we dance in the rain. It doesn't rain that often in the ballet, but then again, a slippery stage would be all they would need. Think of the gasp from the audience as imperfection tore into their expectations and their fear, as umbrellas turn a leap into a Mary Poppins landing, safe in the arms of applause.Not for me that stress. This drawing is my one link to that consuming art form that Adrienne and I have turned our backs upon. This I can wrap my heart around.."
Personal Collection
Personal Collection
The Hawk
The Hawk is a watercolour that I painted many, many years ago when I was young and foolish. There were two couples who wanted it desperately and I had to choose where it went. I went with the people who asked for it first and they danced a ring a round the rosy in my studio at the purchase. It was one of those pieces that was a wrench to let go - a piece of my soul.
I think I might be Hawk in my next life, and soar over the hills where I am now tethered.
Watercolour: Sold
I think I might be Hawk in my next life, and soar over the hills where I am now tethered.
Watercolour: Sold
Ross's Storm
This is a farm that belongs to a retired sheep farmer. It lies below me at the foot of the escarpment and when the storm clouds roll over the hill they come with fury to that land. Even tho' Ross is more than 75, I still see him out working the land dealing with whatever the storm brings his way. Such is the lot of the farmer. Retirement is only a word.
Oil on canvas
David's Input
David's Input is another large oil that was painted in my first studio. I had a visit one day from my good friend, Allenna, and she brought 'David' with her. He was so enthusiastic about my work and the explorations I was making that he ran home and brought in piles of reference to assist me. His zeal was totally infectious so when I titled this painting that was seeded by some of his reference, it was only right that I credit his name. Thank you David, whereever you are. Know you are remembered with a smile, and of course with your name's sake.
Eyeland
Another biggy. 4'x5' oil on canvas and I call it Eyeland. I love the large abstract yet naturalistic shapes surrounding the realistic focus of the eye. I've always enjoyed blowing things up - no, not with dynamite - just the simple exploration of the small, the particular in the hopes that someday I will discover something microscopically universal. It may also be a bit of compensation. I'm just 5'1" and I enjoy the world 'at large.'
Yellow Waterlilly.
Yellow waterlilly was a watercolour painted during my college years. I was selected by Kelloggs to be included in a calendar honouring women painters and I was delighted to be included. I still have a copy of the calendar somewhere but the painting now has a home in a private collection. This particular lilly I found up in Algonquin Park. I left it there but brought home some wonderful memories which surface every time I look at this piece.
Juggler #1, Glass Earth Series
This piece entitled Juggler #1, is a multi-media piece and was purchased by the Government for the Ontario Government Art Collection. It was the first in a whole series and I learned a lot through that work. Still room for more; more ideas, more skill, more self-discipline, and all of them need to be juggled from time to time.
Artifacts
Artifacts is a small painting - well, small for me! 18"x18". Oil on canvas. The shells, artifacts of some previous time and event, front a profile of Lake Nipissing where I walked and scoured the beach alone, but not lonely. If I like myself at all it is due to those endless days when I would comb the shores of the lake for washed up treasure. No, not gold, but the flotsom and jetsom carried by the French River to our far eastern sands. I return every so often to rediscover the girl I was. It's then I appreciate who I am becoming.