RE-CRAFTED

As an artist I have always been interested in colour and texture. As a textile artist, my favourite yarn was mohair because of its brilliant colours and the way that I could create textures in my tapestries by brushing the mohair or weaving sequins into certain areas to create contrast.

As a painter, I enjoy plein air painting because of the beauty of the landscape in Nova Scotia. My landscapes are expressionistic, capturing the light, the windblown clouds and the wildness of what I see. I paint the feeling of the place. I enjoy working with oil sticks on top of a coloured and textured acrylic underpainting and more recently I am replacing the oil sticks with acrylics.

As an abstract painter I painted a series called Winter Gardens which was predominantly in black, white and grey with touches of rust or pink. I worked with oils. In limiting my palette, I learned a lot about composition.

Later, I painted a series called Japanese Doors in which I collaged doors made from Japanese papers onto canvas and painted around them. I have also begun a series called Heart 1 and 2 with acrylic and oil stick.

I find that with my abstracts I am circling back to my interest in textile art. In 2017 I worked on a series called Ropeworks in which I incorporated rope into my paintings. In the summer of 2020, I began a series called Summer Veils of Colour which are influenced by weaving and by the flowers and plants in my garden.

Finally I have been collaborating with a textile artist named Pat Loucks. In the summer of 2019 we worked on a series of outdoor installations called Nets, Knots & Webs on the grounds of Scott Manor House in Bedford, NS.  We attached our ropes and yarns from tree to tree to symbolize the connections between humans and nature. We also created an installation called Entwined made from about 100 pounds of ropes we salvaged from beaches. The ropes are wrapped or tied together and are meant to be hung from the ceiling and cascade down to the floor where their frayed ends will spread out on the gallery floor. Entwined points to the amount of rope in the ocean that endangers the lives of sea creatures, especially whales that can become entangled in rope. Entwined was meant to be exhibited by Re-crafted this summer but because of COVID-19 the exhibition has been cancelled.