Spring Energy

Colourful Forest - Mixed Media on paper
These are fun and fresh to do. The watercolour feels so light and free like the spring air. I feel like I have come through so much darkness lately that the new spring light seems to illuminate everything around me with a new vividness. Just drove home from Ottawa in the golden shimmer of the setting sun, extraordinary light washing the landscape all the way home.
Met lots of talented artists and great people at the Festival. Didn't sell a single thing but lots of positive feedback on my "Falling Water" pieces. Exhibiting my new work gave me confidence in the authenticity of the direction I have chosen. I feel strong and centered in my painting and full of new ideas and enthusiasm. Can't wait to get back in the studio tomorrow.

Longing for Light

Spent the day framing, touching up frames and deciding which paintings to take to the Ottawa Art Festival. I think I've managed to create an actual body of work without even realizing it. Just loaded 16 new paintings into my car and they fit perfectly. This is a group of paintings that has evolved over the last 8 months through a diffiuclt and dark period for me. Painting saved my life! The works show a definite progression from darkness to light, that is why I call the group "Longing for Light". As my friend Doug said, "without the struggle you couldn't have come to the understanding of darkness so necessary to capturing the essential nature of light."

I have emerged into a new and fresh place now, surrounded and filled with light. I'm off to Ottawa bright and early tommorrow morning to attend the Ottawa Art Festival for the week-end. It will be exciting to see the paintings all hung together.

Growing a Group of Artists

It is Spring and I feel so alive today! The air is warm, life is stirring everywhere and my paintings are pouring out of me. I'm working on several pieces at once. I go outside and listen to the water running through the forests and the sun warming the earth and I can't help but paint what is happening to the landscape. I can feel joy running through my veins again and after a long, dark, difficult winter it feels delicious.

I am fortunate enough to be part of a strong group of artists who have come together out of their solitary lives of creation to form a group, Artistes de Mont Tremblant. Living in a municipality where the ski hill dominates can create a vacuum when it comes to the arts. We are ten dedicated sculptors and painters, a diverse group of artists all committed to making art a vital part of our lives and sharing this passion with the community. It's been an exciting time getting to know each other and watching our group grow and form itself. We have planned several events for the summer season and intend on making our voice heard by bringing art to the community in an innovative and sensitive manner.

As much as I love my solitary moments in the forests and studio I also love to bring my work to people and share my discoveries. If I am able to shift someone's attention from the outside world to their own inner world, if even only for a moment, I am elated and feel I have done my job as an artist. I can't do this when my paintings are hanging in galleries with their pseudo sacred hush. I think having galleries represent my work takes all the human interaction away from the artist and totally bewilders the public when they are looking at art. This is why I enjoy the idea of creating more of an event or party like atmosphere for exhibiting my work, after all the long, solitary soul searching is done I feel like celebrating! This is what our group intends to do...make participating in cultural events memorable and FUN!

Another Mylar watercolour sketch done in the forest. Drove to Montreal today to pick up several larger pieces I had framed. I have built quite a body of new work around me over the winter months and now I'm ready to move them into the world. It feels good to be working on lighter pieces with my watercolours and working outside again is heavenly! The river is rushing, the earth is warming, life is stirring everywhere. After a long winter of inspiration and inhilation it feels like a huge exhilation, I feel exhilirated and vital again! My colours are brighter and I'm working faster and freer than ever before with my watercolours. Working into the wet pigment with pastels and watercolour pencils as well, lots of fun and fully engaging...thinking of working some words, poetry and text into the sketches.

A painting a day for the month of May

Today I spent the day nourishing myself in the woods after a five day blow-out migraine! The pain is hard to remember when it stops but so all consuming when it is in my body.

Spring day, alizarin crimson buds make the hillsides shimmer in pinks and mauves. The first stirrings of tree life, silent and strong. The forests are gently waking up, found a tiny double violet all curled in on itself to keep warm.


I want to try and do a painting a day in May, these are the first two. I painted these small watercolours on pieces of mylar. This is the first time I've tried this and I love the results. The water sort of floats on top of the mylar and then I can work into it with wc pencils, very sensuous and flowing to work with.

Heights & Depths

Here is the latest in the Falling Water series. This one is literally a leap off the cliff for me. I did a sketch for this piece about 8 months ago just before I felt the world crumble away from under me and I fell (or was pushed?) from a great height into the depths of emotional despair. The subject matter comes from inside rather than outside and it begins in the light of the moon, with well defined patterns and shapes falling down into the depths of a darker place.



Darker but somehow more honest, emotionally.
This is a turbulent and dangerous place I have entered but necessary for the time being. I like the feminine quality of the piece and feel I have moved into richer, deeper territory. Often the painting is ahead of my mind and I don't want to disturb it's natural unfolding with too many thoughts yet.