Tulips in Winter 2015

It began on a cold, blustery afternoon, a vase of yellow tulips contrasting the grey winter landscape outside my window.  Wanting to pass the time I decided to experiment.
First I played with layers of loose patches of watercolour on raw canvas, then I added blind contour graphite drawings on top. There was an immediacy to the process. No planning, no thinking, just painting and drawing freely without constraint.
Then I decided to use a simplified technique with  miniature illustrations on watercolour paper scraps I had been hanging on to for years. Some are as small as 1.5 x 1.5 inches. What joy!
Working on these made the winter months fly by and brought me an abundance of pleasure.

Selected images:

There's No Place Like Home 2013 - 2015

There's No Place Like Home is a series of works that explores the process of searching for home. It began in Haliburton as my final assignment in Studio Process, but the subject was so compelling that I continued the exploration for another year and a half. It investigates the definition of “home” in a changing cultural context. 

The idea surfaced after I sold my childhood home and embarked on an eighteen month period of moving from one place to another, sometimes by choice and other times by necessity.  It made me examine all my preconceived ideas about belonging to a place or community.

My paintings are created with cold wax and oil on wood panels; the materials themselves speak of the historical significance and preservation of home.  I deconstruct and reconstruct the symbol of a house to represent the search for home and its changing significance. 
My word art is a collection of simple drawings illustrating the emotion behind the sense of belonging or not belonging.
Finally I assembled a series of nests from found objects that are an observation of different types of homes.

Selected images: