In the news

Last December one of my landscape paintings won First Prize in the amateur Watercolour & Gouache category of the 35th edition of the Montréal-wide Pierrefonds Art Contest.
This year, due to a change of venue, the art contest and exhibition will be held in June and July rather than in December through January.
All artworks for this exhibition have to be delivered next week, so I spent some time today matting and framing one of the watercolours that I'd just finished.
I'm quite pleased with how this one came out, even though you can probably see stripes of vertical reflections in this photo - particularly near the bottom - as it's notoriously difficult to get a reflection-free photo of a framed watercolour under glass! Anyhow, this photo is meant to show off the frame...
I buy Canadian-made wood frames at a local independent art supply shop, in a variety of colours and finishes, so that I'll always have 'the perfect one' on hand when I'm reading to frame one of my paintings for a show.
The finish on this one has a beautiful lustre or glow, that caught my eye when I first saw it standing empty in the shop... and I think it looks even better now, with my watercolour!
As for the painting itself, this is a scene from one of my lakefront bike rides.
I'd stopped to rest in the shade at a nature park, while cycling on a very hot and humid day, and watched this old canoe swirling in the slight breeze. Every now and then the wind would still completely, and I'd catch sight of an almost perfect reflection of the white canoe in the water.
I knew immediately that I wanted to paint that moment in time; that reflection with the marsh grasses to the side and in the distance.
The next time the breeze lulled, for just a moment, I was ready to snap the perfect shot with my phone.
One of the best things about living in Montréal, to me, is that I'm never far from the waterfront because the entire city is on an island. Most of my cycling is on routes that follow streams, river, and lakes, and this is often reflected in my paintings. (Pun intended!)
The exhibition for this year's Pierrefonds Art Contest, open to all of the over 2 million residents of Montréal Island, will take place at the historic Pierrefonds Cultural Centre from June 16 through to July 6, 2023; I'll post opening hours and other details next month.
By the way, don't expect another announcement that I've won a prize in this contest - winners of the 2022 edition aren't eligible for prizes again until 2024, although we are allowed to participate in the exhibition.

For folks in the Montréal area...
Two of my watercolour paintings will be included in an upcoming juried art show at Gallery Gora, presented by the historic Women's Art Society of Montréal (WASM).

I use my art to raise awareness of chronic pain and as a means to help manage my own high-impact pain from an autoimmune & neuro-inflammatory rare disease named CRPS.

The Vernissage opening night for this art show, which will be open to the public - for free and without any need for reservations or tickets - will take place on Friday May 12, from 1730 to 2030.
I plan to be be there at about 1730 for a first look at the artworks, and then again after an early dinner with my sweetheart.

Gallery Gora:
279 Sherbrooke Street West, corner Park Avenue, Suite 205 (second floor)

Exhibition opening hours:
From May 8 through May 20, 2023;
Mon-Fri:   1000 - 1700
Saturday: 1300 - 1700
Sunday:    Closed

I more or less spent the weekend at the McMichael Canadian Art  Collection this weekend, north of Toronto.
Yesterday I toured the museum with my sweetheart, and we realized that it had been almost 30 years since our last visit.
It was a pleasure to reconnect with works by two of my favourite female Canadian artists, Emily Carr (1871-1945) and Helen McNicoll (1879-1915), along with treasures by Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven.

One of the things we love about "The McMike" is its landscape; that the grounds and parkland surrounding this museum reflect many of the same kinds of trees and scenes painted by the Ontario-based members of The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson.

Then, today, I participated in a full-day watercolour painting workshop with David McEown, a master-artist & Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
My sweetheart dropped me off at the museum's Pine Cottage studio, went for a 12 km hike, and then brought me lunch from a nearby café during just in time for half-hour break.
The workshop was brilliant, and it was fantastic to finally meet David in person after having taken a four-week virtual masterclass with him last year.

It's National Volunteer Week and I've been honoured to receive so many individual thank you messages from folks at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), the McGill Faculty of Medicine, and several of the other hospitals, medical schools, universities, and organizations with which I've volunteered over the past 12 months.

The University of Alberta, the University of Ottawa, the Canadian Pain Society, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (Pain Science Division), Healthcare Excellence Canada, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH), and a number of others...

I may be limited by my "mild cognitive impairment" - a result of my CRPS rare disease - but I'm happy to know that I can still put my bioethics and healthcare experience to good use, as a volunteer Patient Partner and co-author in research and education projects targeting healthcare professionals ... Particularly in the area of chronic pain. 

And I'm proud to help train the next generation of medical and health sciences students and trainees in pain management and pain conditions , so that others living with pain can get better health*care*.

And, of course, to show through my art the therapeutic benefits of art practice! Whether the brain-plasticy aspects of learning and applying new skills, or the meditative time spent contemplating a scene, planning a painting, and then actually creating an artwork, this watercolour journey has definitely brought me health benefits... and joy.

"Bringing people together, inspiring, soothing and sharing: these are the powers of art" (1) according to the Director-General of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Today is World Art Day, a UNESCO "celebration to promote the development, diffusion and enjoyment of art" (2), and a lovely opportunity to talk about why art is important… to each of us.
Given my own journey – from a career in bioethics and healthcare to becoming a volunteer Patient Partner and advocate for chronic pain, disability, and rare diseases – I’m most interested in the health benefits of art.
As an emerging artist, I’ve also had many conversations with other artists about the benefits that they feel from their own art practice.
You may even have noticed that my motto is "Art Despite Pain".

We now have clear evidence that there are indeed health benefits, from either creating or appreciating art; whether literature, the performing arts, or visual arts.
As a specific example, using the visual arts: "Research has shown that a trip to the art museum can give a serious boost to mental health and wellbeing. A recent study suggests that those benefits may translate for digital art." (3)

As someone who lives with both a ‘mild cognitive impairment’ and high-impact or severe chronic pain, resulting from the same rare disease, I’m also intrigued by the benefits of the arts on our brains and our cognitive health:
"when we make art... we increase the brain's plasticity — its ability to adapt in response to new experiences... 
The link between arts and academic achievement has been noted by educators for many years. But it's only in the past couple of decades that technology has allowed scientists to see some of the changes in the brain that explain why." (4) 

Increasing numbers of medical associations and chronic pain research groups have begun recommending professional art therapy as a means of coping with chronic pain.
As for my cognitive impairment, even the Arts and Neuroscience Networking Group (ANNG) of the  American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) now supports art creation: "A lot is happening both in the mind and the body when we make art, and it can be used for therapeutic means, both in rehabilitation medicine and on your own." (5)

That's more or less what I've been doing on my own since 2021, learning to paint with watercolours, to sketch, and to draw as a form of DIY movement-therapy and brain-plasticity training. I can't tell whether my new art practice has made any difference in my cognitive impairment, but I do know that I've fallen in love with watercolour painting!

References:

(1) UNESCO: Director-General, 2017-current (Azoulay, Audrey) [3391]. Message from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Art Day, 15 Apr 2021 (Programme and meeting document). Document code: DG/ME/ID/2021/17; English version. 15 Apr 2021. Online: Accessed 15 Apr 2023;
(2) UNESCO. World Art Day. Webpage. English version. Undated. Online: Accessed 15 Apr 2023;
(3) Delgado, Carla. How Does Viewing Artwork Online Benefit Your Mental Health? Discover (magazine). 19 Dec 2022. Online: Accessed 15 Apr 2023;
(4) Jon Hamilton. Building a better brain through music, dance and poetry. NPR (National Public Radio): All Things Considered. 03 Apr 2023. Online: Accessed 15 Apr 2023; and
(5) Arts and Neuroscience Networking Group (ANNG). How The Brain Is Affected By Art. Rehabilitation Medicine. American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). Undated. Online: Accessed 15 Apr 2023.

We still have no electricity - or heat! - since 1400 on Wednesday (April 5), due to the latest Montréal ice storm ...
With a windchill below the freezing point!
But I couldn't bear another day without my watercolours, now that the sun has finally come back out - and it's light enough to paint once again.
So I'm sitting in the sunniest spot in my home, wearing my outdoor sports snowshoeing clothes, and wrapped in a sleeping bag for extra warmth.
Sitting, for extra heat, so I'm using a table rather than an easel.

It feels fantastic to be mixing pigment on paper again, but I'm still hoping our heat and electricity will be back soon.
If you're also experiencing this power outage - Good luck & keep safe. If not, have a cup of coffee or tea - for me!

Something cool! I took a 3D printing workshop last weekend, and then designed a 3D "creature" based on one of my recent paintings.
This watercolour was conceived to express something about the 1 in 5 Canadians living with chronic pain - as part of one of my upcoming pain patient advocacy activities (more on that coming up soon, by next week!)...
The background represents flames for the burning neuropathic pain of my rare disease, CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome). The orange "creature" is someone like me - one in five people - living with a persistent pain condition.
It was fun to see tthis little "creature" from my 2D painting come to life as a 3D object! Stay tuned for more information about the pain awareness activity for which I'd created the original painting.

My award-winning local library, part of the City of Montréal's large network of libraries, houses something called a MakerSpace.

This provides publicly-accessible creativity tools within a walled-off area of the library, including sewing machines, computers with design software, scanners, 3D printers, and more.

Today I had some fun in the MakerSpace, taking an introductory-level 3D printing workshop. At the end of the workshop, all participants were invited to 'play' with the software to design... anything we wanted to.

I opted to design a 3D version of an imaginary creature, from one of my recent watercolours. It's a semi-abstract painting for one of my upcoming chronic pain and CRPS rare disease awareness activities.

The MakerSpace staff run the 3D printing jobs overnight, so I should get my little 3D-printed model sometime this week. Once I've received it, I'll share a photo of it, alongside the painting that inspired it.

This was lovely timing!
One of my group art exhibitions wrapped up yesterday, for the 225th anniversary of the Trestler House historic site, so I'm very pleased to have just received the poster for my next group art show.
The Vernissage - or opening night - will take place on Saturday April 1, from 1900 to 2100 ET, at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre in Montréal. If you're in the area, please feel free to stop by and say Hi.
And, by the way, this is not an April Fool's Day joke!
The Spring Show of the Artists' Circle of the West Island will run from March 28 through April 14, 2023 .
This art show is free and open to the public, and will feature a wide range of artistic styles and mediums from more than thirty artists based in Montréal's West Island area.
Three of my watercolours will be on display, all paintings of flowers this time around - as my tribute to springtime.
The original artworks to be displayed, all created by members of this community art group, will include acrylic, mixed media, oil, and watercolour paintings.
There is truly something for everyone at our exhibitions.

Address:
Pierrefonds Cultural Centre, Lower level
13850 Gouin Blvd West, near the Pierrefonds Library
Montréal, Québec

Opening Hours, March 28-April 14, 2023:
- Weekdays 1400 - 2000
- Weekends noon-1600
* Closed: Friday April 7 & Monday April 10, 2023

If you take a close look at the bottom right side of this poster, you might recognize one of the artworks; the close-up watercolour view of a rose, that I mentioned in last week's post.

Do you like flowers? The ones that I most love to paint are wildflowers, and the perennial almost-wild flowering plants that can survive our harsh Montréal winters.
My own rather wild flower gardens are a source of constant joy and inspiration, when they're not buried under 3 feet (1 metre) of snow as is the case today!
So when my sweetheart gave me a bouquet of cut flowers recently, for an anniversary, I took plenty of photos and practiced painting them from "live models".
The lovely thing about painting these was that they didn't move and sway, in the wind, the way the flowers do when I'm plein-air painting - painting outdoors.
And while I was taking these photos, I suddenly realized that I'd never before tried to paint a rose with my watercolours.
This is my first attempt at a rose, and I chose a very detailed or 'macro' view - with very little foliage - as I wanted to try to understand how the petals were organized and how some of their edges folded outwards.
I also loved how the baby's breath was cradling the edge of the rose, and had found its way between some petals.

Then I started to paint another view of the same rose, a bit later in the week, after the petals had fully opened and the bloom was starting to fade away. The purple flowers had already died off, leaving only the  greying baby's breath.
This time I painted the rose from above, and included much more of the foliage in my photo and my painting.
You can see how much the colour has paled in this one, although there is still that one darker petal off to the left - which will hopefully add to the feeling of the rose quietly fading away...

My first two paintings of roses, with two very different yet quite detailed perspectives.
I definitely prefer the second one, but the folks in my art groups mostly prefer the first one - possibly because it's not a common view of a rose.
Either way, thanks so much for stopping by!