Talking with artist and writer friends about making sufficient time to create, I thought I’d write about what I’m up to this month. People automatically translate living on an island as I do into the ultimate quiet space to create. That can be true…

I’m excitedly packing art gear for a four- week self-directed residency at Blue Horse Gallery on Salt Spring Island.

My new show of works on paper opened this week at Winchester Galleries, on till June 30th.

'R o a d T r i p: a p a p e r t r a i l'

Exhibition Opens - T u e s d a y J u n e 7 - J u n e 3 0

Artist's reception - S a t u r d a y J u n e 11 2:00 - 4:00 Upper Gallery
If you can, drop by the gallery. It would be great to see you!

I pack light in terms of creative materials when I travel...

https://www.winchestergalleriesltd.com/There is something about the adventure of jumping in the car; the spontaneity of taking that next turn in the road, the freedom to stay in a place a bit longer….

When I am away from the studio some basics get stuffed into my travel bag: a very old, tiny metal Winsor & Newton watercolour box, a couple of brushes, some conté, paper and always, a camera. Painting en plein air isn’t part of my practice. Wandering around a location that draws me in...

Exhibition: J u n e 7 - 30, 2016 Winchester Galleries, Victoria

Artist Opening: S a t u r d a y J u n e 11 2:00 - 4:00 Upper Gallery

A high clerestory window in my bedroom provides a view of tall fir trees. Hanging on to moss covered bluffs, winter winds often buffet these trees every which way. I’ve written in past posts about my early morning thought process that happens before the rest of the world wakes up and I rush headlong into my day. For the past couple of years, as I lay awake and watch one group of branches – they’ve become the perfect, huge, shape of a rabbit’s head. Flopping ears and talking mouth. I’ve become quite attached to the creature. As the head moves I imagine how I’d draw this angle or that. Lately things have changed; branches have grown or fallen off. I’ve been forcing that rabbit head to remain but no, it’s pretty well history. My history. Yesterday morning when I opened one eye…

Bugera Matheson Gallery's Winter Show, 'Gifts for Her' begins on the 12th of December. If you are in the neighbourhood drop by, Love Changes Everything is one of my oil paintings featured in the exhibition.

December 12- 31, 2015

Winchester Galleries' show 'The Winter Exhibition, An Exquisite Collection of Small Works' has just opened. In the Dream of Dawn is one of my watercolour/mixed media paintings in the show. Drop by when you're out doing your holiday shopping, it's a treat of a gallery.

My watercolours don’t get out much. They mostly hang around the studio while I work on larger paintings...but Winchester Galleries is featuring my work on paper during their Canadian Modern show November 3 - 18 at their Oak Bay location.
These paintings play an important roll in my daily studio practice, much of it on a subconscious level. They are a direct yet meditative way to play out on paper new ideas and directions I’m considering. Each watercolour represents moments...

view on line catalogue here purchase the print verision

Creating with Fiona Duthie this past year on our two shows has been one of pushing individual boundaries. Our conversations were most often about making. Although we are image-makers using completely different mediums, the similarities in what we were both saying helped us pull together a cohesive story that became SHIFT. Concepts tumbled out from the inspiration of each other’s work, in fact there were more ideas than...

My collaborative exhibition SHIFT exploring layers of perspective with sculptural feltmaker Fiona Duthie from last summer's show on Salt Spring Island has been accepted for a Vancouver exhibition at the Seymour Art Gallery in Deep Cove. Our newest work from the series will be part of this year's show. Gallery's comments are below on my blog. Click Read More.
It would be great fun if you drop by the opening!

Save The Date!
Seymour Art Gallery
Dates: July 8 to August 8th
Artist Talks: Sunday July 12th 2 pm, Reception following

Reading Susan Cain’s book "Quiet The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking" I wondered about how the role of personality or mood shapes my own paintings. Also, how colour itself presents a painting to the world…

Walking on one of those beaches that go forever in Oregon last fall, we struck up a conversation a man who turned out to be almost completely blind. He spent much of the day flying large, beautiful kites. He had a special routine with everything in it's place, strings tied to his backpack so he could follow the strings and...

click below to see photos and the painting that evolved from this afternoon.

This morning offered a pale pink and yellow hint of the day as I lay in bed mentally rummaging through images. Rummaging and reading happens when I want to change subject matter or how I’ll depict it. This past winter I was spending more time than I’d like to admit at the ‘lost’ stage in the studio. I’d show up daily and paint through the dark questions. Then often paint ‘over them’. (there’s history under all those layers!) Now notes, articles and scribbles in journals lay around the studio. Colour-combo swatches that sing to me are pinned on the walls. New music is playing… I’m looking at paintings as they evolved over this past year. I can see traces of my intentions already appearing in each painting.

So what’s inspiring me right now?

A few photos from the Easter weekend exhibition on Salt Spring Island. 5 Women In Abstraction was the first show after winter... everyone ethusiastically comes out or even flys in, for the beginning of the arts season on Salt Spring. It was a terrific evening! For more pics…

On Easter Weekend I'm participating in a new exhibition with four other artists who also explore abstraction in paint, wax or clay. Four painters and a potter!
Easter is the kick off for everything art-related on Salt Spring Island, BC, one of North America's most highly regarded small arts communities.

Dates and times below...with more on the tour here:

http://www.saltspringeasterarttour.com/

Just returned from my opening at Bugera Matheson in Edmonton. It was a beautifully hung and successful show, thanks everyone at the gallery! Still time to drop by if you are in town. A few photos...click below.

February 28 - March 14 2015

Avenue Magazine's ad for my two-person exhibition with landscape artist Micheal Thiesson at Bugera Matheson Gallery, in Edmonton.

The show launches the gallery's spring season, and is my debut at the gallery. I'll be in Edmonton at the opening...click read more for times.

February 28 - March 14

'Out of the Blue' (click for painting details) is one the new paintings I've been working on this past winter. My exploration of the natural environment continues but with a more intimate focus on a cellular level.
If you are unable to visit the gallery, this and other paintings from the exhibition will be...

This upcoming ad in gallerieswest magazine features the group show 'Every Room With A View', January 1st at Bugera Matheson Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta. (click 'read more' below to see full ad)