What excites me most when I am painting is colour. I love how colours work together to create a mood or a feeling. I love working with black gesso and will start a painting by drawing in white on the black. I developed my style of painting when experimenting with different mediums and combining them with gilding.
I wanted to change the underlying texture to create an interesting surface. I like when one of my paintings reminds me of a wood block print or a piece of tapestry.
My mother used to love birds and in the last few years I have developed a fascination for birds as well. There are so many different varieties of birds and each has a distinct personality. I have focused my subject matter on birds because I feel that they provide some additional interest, personality or humour in my paintings.
Once in awhile a cat or a frog or fish will turn up in one of my paintings. I choose my subject matter by what is interesting to me or is something that I would like to explore with gilding. I have always loved to paint still lifes and find that adding birds to a still life changes the perspective.
I enjoy the process of layering in each painting and the time that it takes to plan the drawing, mediums, gilding and adding colour. I am always surprised at the end when the painting reveals itself, which is the biggest payoff and reward.
Artists' Workshop Saskatoon 