In the news

With a bit of extra time over the holidays, I collected all of the art magazines that I'd left scattered around my home and set out to finally finish reading them.
Some I'd set aside to reread a particular article, others I'd started but hadn't finished, and several that I'd read and then forgotten to put away.
There were even a few, mostly from the warmer months when I spend as much time as possible outdoors - cycling and plein-air painting - that hadn't even been opened yet.
With a mild cognitive impairment, as a result of my rare disease, I'm easily distracted. 
I also have difficulty reading, for more than an hour at a time.
This means that magazines get abandoned mid-read, wherever I happen to be at the time, and I'll usually forget to find and finish them.

So when my husband went to his office on Monday (yes, he was at work on January 2nd!), I sat down with a cup of coffee and a large stack of magazines.
That stack of magazines isn't gone yet, but it is steadily shrinking.
And I found a lovely surprise in one of them.
I was quoted in the May/June issue of Artists Magazine, on page 16.
It was quite a nice feeling, as an emerging or new artist, to see my words in print - in an international art magazine!
It's on the right in this photo, second after the red subtitle:

This magazine has social media accounts, where they occasionally ask a question directed to their artist-readers.
Called "The Ask", this feature allows artists from around the world to reply to the same specific question. 
My replies have been featured several times on their Facebook and Instagram pages, but never before in print.

Are you wondering what my quoted reply was, in this magazine?
It was my response to the following question:
"What's your favorite painting series by a famous artist?"
My reply - from last spring - actually relates to a watercolour I painted this past autumn; the one that won a First Prize in a Montréal-wide art contest just last month!:
"Cézanne's nearly lifelong series of paintings of Montagne Sainte-Victoire.
He interpreted the different light and moods of the mountain over time and captured the particular luminosity of Provence.
I've hiked to the summit, and it still inspires me to think I may have walked in the same places as he did!"
- SANDRA WOODS

I'm happy that I only found this printed quotation now, because my First Prize painting last month was of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire.
Painted from reference photos that I took on that same trip to Provence, 20 years ago!
I remember telling my husband: "Some day I'll paint this mountain, too."
We're both long-time museum hounds and art lovers, so we already knew of Paul Cézanne's affection for this beautiful mountain landscape.
And I love the fact that I 'found' my words about it in an art magazine, exactly a month after my own painting of that mountain won an award.
How perfect is that?