Artist Statement
What can I say, I’m a materials girl! I love to experiment with unconventional materials and processes to create paintings that are textured and tactile. I work with mixed media; acrylics, water media, metal leaf, charcoal and collage on a Venetian Plaster ground. My subject matter is inspired by nature but I paint in an abstracted, contemporary style. I tend towards landscapes, rock formations and trees and am fascinated with the quirky behaviours and personalities of birds.
As a child I remember walking along the dusty country roads near our farm in southern Saskatchewan collecting rocks and pieces of petrified wood. I still love rocks, fossils and the geological strata found in Western North America from cliff faces in the Rocky Mountains to the badlands of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Anyone who has lived in the Prairie Provinces can relate to stormy skies. As far back as I can remember I viewed approaching storms with a sense of trepidation and fascination. In Saskatchewan you could see the thunderclouds approaching from a great distance and knew something was coming; something wild and maybe destructive and certainly exciting.
Living in Calgary, Alberta has placed me in the sweet spot between the the Rocky Mountains to the West and the ‘Land of the Living Skies’ to the East. I draw heavily on this inspiration in my artistic practice.