In the news

I have some fantastic news to share, as an emerging artist! Last night I was presented with a First Prize at the Art Contest Gala awards ceremony for the long-running Pierrefonds Art Contest. Open to all residents of Montréal – of the entire island, not only the City of Montréal – this contest covers a multicultural population of just over 2 million people. So it’s kind of a big deal, despite its unpretentious name.
The awards Gala for the 36^th edition of this annual art competition took place at the historic Pierrefonds Cultural Centre, after which the artists, dignitaries, and other guests all walked next door to the Vernissage at the award-winning and much more modern Pierrefonds Library.
The companion art exhibition, featuring works accepted by the Jury for the Pierrefonds Art Contest, is open to the public at no charge. The art show begins today and will continue through December 18, 2022, during regular library hours; Monday 1300-2100, Tuesday-Friday 1000 to 2100, and Saturday-Sunday 1000-1700. The Pierrefonds Library is at 13555 boulevard de Pierrefonds, and is part of the City of Montréal library network.
If you’re in the area and plan to stop by this exhibition, let me know and I can try to meet you there '-)
Note:  My husband took some phone-photos for me at the Gala and art show, but there was a professional photographer for both events; I'll post better photos when I receive those!

This is one of several photos that I took at sunset this past weekend, to plan a  watercolour painting of the historic Marché Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market) building in Old Montréal. I love the way the buildings on either side of this cobblestoned street form almost a canyon effect, pointing towards the silvery Market building and its curved dome - interrupted by one of Montréal's innumerable church spires. And the light, of course, that gorgeous warm almost-sunset "golden hour" glow when these grey stone buildings temporarily reflect the warm hues of the setting sun.
I'll probably use some artistic license to edit out the scaffolding at the end of one of the buildings, along with the cars parked along the right side of the street. The distracting holiday lights in front of the Market building itself will likely be omitted from my painting as well, as they wouldn't add anything to the composition.
I may not have time to start this painting until the New Year, but I couldn't resist sharing my excitement as I sort through my photos in this initial planning stage of the composition!

I'm happy to share the news that one of my watercolour paintings will be on display as part of an upcoming art exhibition at the award-winning Pierrefonds Library. This annual exhibition features both amateur and professional artists from across Montréal, with a variety of artistic styles and techniques.
The exhibition will run December 3 through 18, 2022, during regular Library hours.
Although the exhibition is free to the public, the Vernissage - which will take place during the evening of Friday December 2nd - will be by invitation only through the City of Montréal.
The Pierrefonds Library is located at 13555 boulevard de Pierrefonds, in Pierrefonds, and is part of the Ville de Montréal library network.
If you plan to drop by this exhibition, please let me know so that I can try to meet you there!
(This is one of the photos that I took at last year's exhibition at the Pierrefonds Library.)

Another 'challenge' art project, an almost 12" x 17" collage. The concept was to show why my personal motto remains "Art Despite Pain", and that my CRPS rare disease and chronic pain impact pretty much every aspect of my life - and my husband's as well.
My art practice is truly intertwined with my chronic pain patient reality, in part because I began learning to paint last year as a form of movement-therapy for right hand/arm CRPS - and as brain plasticity training for my CRPS-related 'mild cognitive impairment'.
Every aspect of our lives is affected by this medical condition... From what we eat as part of my mostly anti-inflammatory diet, to the extra rest and wellness requirements of an autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory chronic illness, to changes in how we exercise and which outdoor sports I can still do. 
As an example, I ride my bike using only one hand, but haven't (yet!) figured out a good way to cross-country ski that way.
There's also the difficulty of traveling with a rare disease (not that we've gone anywhere since the start of the pandemic!), and my personal need to find beauty and joy in every day.
We also find ways to integrate nature into our lives, even on days when my disease is at its worst, because our shared love of nature is at the very roots of our relationship - and of our shared well-being. 

Collage is usually fun to do, but this one took much longer than I'd expected. It also carried an emotional toll, although I am glad of the experience. And for the opportunity to visually link my art practice and my chronic pain patient advocacy activities, much more directly than usual, in this piece.
I'm pleased to have created it, but now feel a need to hide this collage away for a few days before taking another look at it.
Is there anything in YOUR life that you'd like to express, in a collage format? This is something that almost anyone can do, without any of the more 'technical' art supplies that I used. Start with a blank page, a pair of scissors, a stack of magazines or other pieces to cut up, a good-quality glue stick - and some imagination!

Thanks so much to the Canadian Pain Society (CPS), for this feature in the Fall 2022 edition of the CPS eNews newsletter!
I'm a CPS member who has been combining my art, my experiences gained through a previous career in bioethics, and my own chronic pain and rare disease patient journey to help raise awareness of chronic pain since 2016. Last year I won the inaugural Art Awards of the CPS, with the watercolour painting shown in this excerpt of their fall newsletter.
My art practice is so heavily intertwined in my chronic pain reality that it's impossible to separate the two. Although I had previously done amateur nature photography, my rare disease has affected my right hand and arm to the point that I struggle to use a real camera. 
Last year I began painting as a form of movement-therapy for my own pain condition - Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). I chose watercolours, generally considered the most difficult medium, with the hope that learning and applying difficult artistic skills might help prevent any worsening of my CRPS-related 'mild cognitive impairment' over time. 
This is why I often say that my art practice is intertwined with both my reality as a pain patient and my volunteer activities in the area of pain - as a Patient Partner in research and quality improvement projects, as a mentor to others living with persistent pain, and as a presenter or speaker to groups of medical students, residents, and healthcare professionals...
The motto of my art practice is "Art Despite Pain", so it's lovely to see my art-as-advocacy featured in this national newsletter for healthcare professionals, students, trainees, and researchers in the area of pain.
Here's a link to the article mentioned - in The Suburban newspaper (based in Montréal, it's the largest weekly newspaper in the province of Québec):
"Sandra Woods will be one of 12 emerging artists whose work will be on display Aug. 7 at the What the Pop! Art Pop-up Exhibition in Hudson"

This afternoon was the first class in a 4-week watercolour course, on Saturdays, offered through the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The artist-instructor started us off with a warm-up exercise, painting autumn leaves using a few different techniques. These included mixing colour on the page rather than on the palette, using an underpainting colour, creating neutral colours by mixing complementary colours, and more!
All are techniques that I've used in the past, but it's always interesting to see how different artists adapt these techniques to their own artistic styles. This one's unfinished, but I like the way that maple leaf came out.

Have you ever noticed the fantastic shadows created by leaves, on sidewalks and paved roads? I wanted to recreate some of those almost serrated shadows in a still life, so I collected an assortment of colourful  autumn leaves today, arranged them in a vase, and placed it on a table in full sun.
In this watercolour study, there was light coming in from two different windows - creating two distinct light sources. This is always a challenge to paint, and this case was no exception!
The light was hitting the vase and table from the left side, as well as - higher up on the vase - from the front.
This 8" x 10" study was enough to show me that this composition would be better with only one light source, as the shadows are somewhat confusing. The diagonal shadow one on the wall, from one of the  two window frames. doesn't make much sense in the composition.
I'll definitely plan to do this one as a full painting, as I adore the shadows of the leaves on the vase and off to the side... but these would look much better without the interference of that diagonal shadow intersecting the vase.

I was putting out the last of our Halloween decorations, and noticed that the late afternoon sun was casting some intriguing shadows off one of the rubber rats that I'd positioned on the steps leading to our door. These decorations are fairly lifelike little rodents, so I decided to draw it as a wildlife sketch - just for fun.
The rat's shadow moved quite a bit between when I started this sketch and when I finished it, so the shadow in my sketchbook doesn't quite match the shadow on the ground when I snapped the photo. If you look closely at the tail in my sketch, and then compare it with the tail's shadow in the photo, you'll see what I mean.
This was a lot of fun to do, and a lovely way to enjoy the gorgeous weather. 
Have a Happy Halloween, however you spend it!

This week I'm participating in an online watercolour workshop with Andy Evansen, an award-winning American artist. One of his most important lessons is that watercolour artists in particular need to view compositions in terms of shapes, to allow us to better reserve the light areas of our cotton-paper.
That's why I called this set of exercises: "Seeing shapes, not sheep".
Unlike in acrylic or oil painting, in which an artist can layer light colours over darks, the palest colours in a watercolour are the paper itself showing through. Once you've laid down pigment onto a watercolour surface, you can't make it paler. You can lift the pigment off, in limited areas, but that doesn't work well with staining pigments like the phthalo blues and greens that I adore.

This weekend I participated in a two-day watercolour workshop, virtually but live, with an award-winning local artist; Michael Solovyev. It was a lovely two days of art learning, with a few "quick practice" sessions. As Michael said, the goal of an art workshop is "to learn new techniques, not to paint a masterpiece".
I had trouble keeping up towards the end of the session each day, as always, because of my 'mild cognitive impairment'. A result of my rare disease, these cognitive issues include concentration, focus, and memory - particularly over sustained periods... like courses and workshops.
If you look closely at my sailboat, you'll notice that the hull and details aren't quite right; this was the last portion of the painting that we approached, and my brain simply wasn't able to process any more information by that point.
Despite that, I'm happy with this one overall; as an 11 x 15" learning experience, rather than as a painting!