In the news

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!

If you're in the Montréal area, stop by the Kirkland Library to view the 2022 Autumn Art Expo. Presented by the Artists' Circle of the West Island, this free public art event will continue until October 1, 2022. The exhibition includes original paintings in acrylic, mixed media, oil, and watercolour, with a wide range of different artistic styles and techniques.

This afternoon, the group Artists in Montréal presented the Virtual Vernissage for the online exhibition "In my childhood". This art event was organized in partnership with the non-profit Make it Matter, for children's well-being. One of my watercolours was included in this eExhibition, a 10 x 8" Cedar waxwing in a shrub. It's a bird that we see only occasionally now, but there seemed to always be flocks of them nearby when I was a child.

I use my art to raise awareness of chronic pain, and this art-as-advocacy was featured in a Montréal newspaper in August 2022.
You can read this article, in The Suburban.
Or hop over to the Art Despite Pain page, to learn more about my patient advocacy activities and my rare disease!