There are many reasons to take part in an Artist Residency, but the most valuable to me are:

1. An opportunity to focus on work without interruption.
2. Time to experiment with new media.
3. A space for research.

During my time in Banff, I focused on landscape painting on wood panels utilizing slow drying acrylics. I have always been interested in the landscape but felt intimidated by it and utilized the time to figure out how I wanted to approach this subject. I have continued to work on plein air landscapes on wood panels, but am now incorporating handmade watercolours in my attempt to leave a lighter footprint on the earth.

While at the ASA Gallery with the Alberta Society of Artists, I had the opportunity to do some research on a series of portraits that I wanted to create which features historical Alberta female artists. It was the first time I created larger portraits utilizing watercolours.

Prior to the residency at the ASA Gallery, I was given space and time at Sparrow Artspace to explore two different media: embroidery on canvas and watercolour portraiture. Since that residency, I have expanded the work with embroidery as that was my initial introduction to visual art as my family is from South America and embroidered much of their handmade clothing. I am also making more watercolour paint while using Beam Paints watercolours, an organic Canadian made product. Also, I have continued work on watercolour portraits for the project titled 'Women of the West.'

Without the time and place that I was granted to explore this work, I don't know if I would have continued it. Since then, several projects have now been exhibited with another nearing completion and I feel very good about that.

Painting the quiet moments...Took my little travel palette out to Nose Creek by the library in the autumn and tried to capture the warm, fading colours of late autumn. There's something magical about painting in the landscape - you start noticing every patch of gold, every cool reflection on the water. Cold fingers were totally worth it.

This is one of the oldest pieces that I have kept in our home as it's a painting of my eldest daughter as a toddler. We were painting in my studio so she was wearing one of her dad's old t-shirts but she suddenly realized that it was about time for my husband to come home from work so she ran to the livingroom window to perch and keep watch. She did this almost daily and one day I decided to sketch her and then, eventually, to create this 4x4 foot painting. It was one of the first larger pieces I created after college and it still gives me so much joy.

Throughout the years I have attempted to capture the landscape in many different media and in many different sizes. From acrylics to oil paint and mixed media to watercolour...and now that I've learned to utilize a watercolour ground on wood, I feel like I'm finally hitting my groove. I also did like working with oil paints, but it was very messy and didn't agree with my husband, so I'm very glad that I've found a way to work with watercolours on panels, too. And, after taking a workshop that was presented by a friend many, many years ago, I learned how to protect my watercolours without glass by coating them with Dorland's Wax. It smells delicious, too. Even after focusing on watercolours in a couple of residencies, I struggled to find my voice, but as I look back at the work that I have created throughout the years, I think I have finally figured it out. That is very exciting!

​The 'Women of the West' project, now complete, featuring historical female artists working in Alberta in the early 1900s, is explored through my perspective as a long-time resident and female artist who understands the ongoing challenges women face in the art world...challenges that were even greater in the past. Through archival research, I uncovered the largely overlooked contributions of these women to Alberta’s artistic growth, a gap I first noticed during my Art & Design studies in the mid-1980s and again during art history courses taken during the pandemic, where information about female artists, particularly those from Alberta, remained scarce. A pivotal inspiration was discovering the work of Margaret Shelton (a teacher who cycled long distances with her supplies to create watercolours and woodcut prints) at a 2008 exhibition, where her resourcefulness and dedication  embodied the resilience of many Alberta women artists. The project began prior to my 2024 Artist Residency with the Alberta Society of Artists where I initially experimented with full-sized watercolour sheets before returning to portrait-focused work on 12 × 12 inch prepared wood panels, in order to invite viewers, as Georgia O’Keeffe did with her flowers, to pause and learn about these important women.

​My favourite supplies of artists are their pochades (paintboxes) so I thought I'd share my 20-year-old Guerrilla Painter 6x8 ThumBox by Judson's Art and start a little plein air landscape watercolour while I was out. My goal this year is to get out and paint snow and this warm Chinook wind was the perfect time to get back outside. When I walk further, I either pop all the supplies, including my tripod, into my Fjallraven backpack, or only take the pochade with whatever I need inside.

How I keep myself motivated to get out and paint:
1. Keep my supplies readily available so that I can just grab & go.
2. Use materials that I love...paint, brushes & substrate (surfaces).
3. Visit locations nearby that inspire me (within walking distance).

A few favourite supplies:
1. Judson's 6x8 ThumBox
2. Art Toolkit Folio watercolour palette
3. Derwent waterbrush & Inktense pencils

A Chinook wind is a dry, warm wind which is also known as "Snow Eater" in Blackfoot tradition as temperatures can rise by up to 40 degrees Celsius in a few hours, causing snow to evaporate.

New video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5jt7nGxHQ​

Initially, I was uncertain how I would like watercolour painting on 5x7 inch wooden panels that were prepared with a homemade watercolour ground but I love it! Both the size and medium suit me very well. Plus, these deep oak float frames by eastern Canadian company Rustic Burl & Co are perfect! I just coat them with a layer of Dorland's Wax, the same product I use to protect the finished paintings. I'm so pleased with these and, after completing 10 of these, am looking forward to framing up some of my 4x6 inch plein air paintings on paper which I will adhere to a substrate and then frame in the same manner. 

This week on my youtube channel I shared a bit of my process for painting watercolour portraits on wood. I'm now down to the last 2 portraits in this project and I'm excited and a little sad to let it go. If you are interested in learning a bit more about my process and maybe creating your own watercolour portrait, please visit youtube here. 

I began my career as an artist 30 years ago with a focus on painting large scale interiors. I used to stretch all of my 3-5 foot canvases, make my own gesso from a recipe that I got in college, and realized quickly that, as a homebody (when I wasn't at work), I wanted to paint the things that surrounded me...a cozy spot to sit and read with soft lighting. Occasionally, I still paint interiors, but now they tend to be smaller (this one measures 8x10 inches). There is now a demo up on YouTube.