My paintings and collages are inspired by a variety of interests: the pleasure of experimenting with color and texture, the exquisite beauty of patterns in nature, and the use of fragments and found objects. I enjoy using a close-up format to explore in depth the shape, color and surface texture of natural elements such as water, rock, and plant material. In addition, I like to use photographs and collage elements as a starting point for mixed media paintings.
I love to experiment with a diversity of materials to create rich, textured surfaces. But the colour and texture are actually just enjoyable by-products of my main interest, which is layers. Whether in paintings, collage or drawings, this rich layering is achieved by working colours over each other using various broken colour techniques such as glazing, resists, and scumbling. Media may include the usual (acrylics, oils, pastel, inks, charcoal) as well as more unlikely materials such as eggshells, wire, fabric, sand, and any other cast-away object that catches my eye.
To be quite truthful, I seldom have any idea what a finished painting will look like. My process often starts with an evocative photograph.
For example, the painting “Grrrl Power” began with a photograph that I had taken of my niece Leonie and her friend Annie. In the photo, Leonie is impatient with posing and wanting to leave, while Annie is clowning around pulling her tiger t-shirt over her face. I enlarged the photo to 11×17 and then used a photocopier to make lots of copies in various sizes. I used a stretched canvas as the support, and prepared it by “building” a surface of texture using old wallpaper and fabric. I then played around with various configurations of the photocopied images until something surfaced.
What I discovered is that the most evocative part of the image was Leonie’s posture – her outstretched leg and beautifully curving outer arm. I decided to feature the shape of her arm by repeating it in diminishing sizes. While I was working on the painting, I was thinking about what it means to be a girl. To represent my hope that Annie and Leonie’s apparent joy and confidence would continue, I added the angel holding a candle. After adhering all the collage elements, I painted around and over the collage elements with acrylic paints.
Art Education
Fine Art Diploma program at Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC
Diploma courses at Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria, BC
Workshops with Margareta Bootsma and Ken Flett
Solo Exhibitions
2005 The Old School House Gallery, Qualicum Beach, BC
2000 The Chocolate Claim, Whitehorse, Yukon
1998 Scotia McLeod, Courtenay, BC
1998 Harmony Café, Qualicum Beach, BC
Group Exhibitions
2000 Art on the Move Gallery, Nanaimo, BC
2000 “Small in Nature”, Oceanside Community Arts Council, Parksville, BC
1997 “Works on Paper”, Arts Alliance Gallery, Courtenay, BC (juried international show sponsored by the Canadian Watercolour Society)
1996 “Photomenagerie”, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Nanaimo, BC
Collections
My work is in the Scotia McLeod corporate collection as well as private collections around the world.
