My Process
I am a Landscape Artist.
I love the colours of expressionist painters and often choose colours based less on hue and more on light and how the the paint colours interact on paper. I use a combination of transparent watercolours with opaque gouache and ink pens.
The paintings on this site show a journey of discovering a style that brings me joy. I have explored more realistic and more fantastical painting styles, taking inspiration from my favourite painters both past and present.
My current paintings blend abstract or impressionistic vibrant backgrounds with more realistic foreground elements to create images less about reality and more about possibility. A friend once told me that my paintings "speak" to her. That is the highest praise, to have someone see a story, for the paining to evoke an emotion. To bring the landscape to life.
I think a lot about contrast when painting as I am the wife of a photographer. My husband and I often discuss the difference between the eye and the camera, that the eye focuses on each item as it's seen while the camera can be made to choose and to focus on one or two elements. That is how I often paint, choosing to play with colours in the background to set the scene, and then focus the painting with an inspired image from a photograph.
Why I Paint
I have fallen in love with watercolour. I often try to control life, my situation and watercolour doesn't care what I think - it has it's own agenda, does what it does. I can guide it, but when applying wet paint to a wet surface? I can't force it anymore than I can force a child to swallow mashed peas. And this is liberating, therapeutic, exciting. Watercolour teaches me patience, wet paint must dry before adding detail. It teaches me to adapt, be flexible, to be better at being me.
Who I Am
I am married to a writer and photographer with a love of the outdoors. I have two children and have been living in Tumbler Ridge since moving from the Lower Mainland in search of work and affordable housing. I work full time and paint most evenings taking inspiration from photography and life recollections.
These images are not those of a veteran artist, they are the works of an explorer - a traveler. I am new at this but I believe the journey holds more value.
Artist who Inspire
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Emily Carr - Emily Carr lived in British Columbia, Canada and was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. She is the first artist I remember learning about as a child. Her works inspire me to look past the visible to what is within, to give life to my paintings.
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Georgia O'Keeffe- Georgia O'Keeffe was an American artist known for her enlarged flowers and New Mexico landscapes, and who has been recognized as the mother of American Modernism. There is something magical to me about the sweeping strokes of colour in her paintings, evoking movement and grandeur in the subjects she paints.
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Angela Fehr - Angela Fehr is a BC Watercolour artist living in the Northern British Columbia who's style is "heart-led". Angela's inspirational videos and painting gave me the freedom to paint in a way that brings me joy and to allow my work to reflect that. Angela encourages fearlessness in painting, for authenticity instead of perfection. You can find her site at www.angelafehr.com.
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Darcy Jackson - Darcy Jackson is a veteran painter living in Tumbler Ridge who's heart is as big as her talent. Last year Darcy invited me to join a group of ladies who paint together once a week and I have been inspired and encouraged by each of these precious artists. Darcy is a bright light in our artist community.