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Exhibition at Orange Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario, March 4, 2020 The last straw, I guess. Everything is cancelled including fun stuff. Even the parks. No more long walks with Romeo running free. So I am painting a lot. I read on Artnet News that data says “being an artist is the second safest profession amid a coronavirus outbreak (behind loggers).” The solitary nature of the profession is its saving grace.” It might be safe to stay in my studio and paint most of the day, but

“It’s Not What You Think, no. 3″; oil & collage on canvas; 60″ x 84” At the end of a week workshop I taught in Mahone Bay last September, the group gave me a mason jar filled with little notes of appreciation. Since then when I feel low I dip into the jar, my honey jar. Having been down with the flu for the past week, I found it lifted me up today. Little words that added up to a big feeling of gratefulness. Thank you, my lovely friends. It is always a joy to teach and especi

Totally exhausted is all I can say. Came home from Ottawa eager to get back to work. After a day home, one morning in my studio, and I have come down with a bad cold/flu. Nothing like the body to slow me down! I am enjoying lying around, sleeping half the day, reading and forgetting about housework. But I am getting a little restless, for sure. The exhibit looks good. Up until March 20 at the Orange Art Gallery. Ingrid Hollander, the owner, does a beautiful job of placing the

October was a busy month. Long days and short nights. It was exhilarating and exhausting. I have finally caught up on lost sleep, am settled into my regular life and back to an intense work schedule. In the early part of the month I was immersed in a week long family visit. Then, shortly after, I went to Truro, NS, for two days and the opening reception at the Visual Voice Gallery. After returning home, I turned around and went to Annapolis Royal to teach a four-day workshop.

Last week when I was walking in the woods with a neighbor and our dogs, I mentioned that I had been awake part of the night planning the exercise I was going to use in my painting class that morning. She wondered what it would be like to be “creative”. I, on the other hand, cannot imagine life otherwise, but just said it’s a twenty-four hour, non-stop way of being; it just is. Keeps me wondering how to approach all kinds of things. In this case, it’s the importance of composi

I love a challenge. Keeps me on my toes. Of course, painting is that, always. As well, I’ve been having a great time lately teaching. I’ve had three different places around the Province where I am or did teach recently. Each group is so different. The most recent group was eager to have homework. I suggested they take a painting (in this case, Manet’s The Dead Toreador), and use it as a takeoff for an abstract painting. The inspiration can come from the composition, the use o